Maine health officials reported just eight new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, tying for the lowest one-day total since the first days of the pandemic.
In addition, 54 more people have recovered, bringing the number of active cases to 390, compared to 436 on Monday.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has tracked 3,566 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 since mid-March. Maine has also seen 114 deaths related to the virus, a lower total than all other states except nine.
In the past 10 days, Maine has averaged 17 new cases per day, well below an average of 38 new cases per day during the previous 10-day period. It’s only been four days since the end of March when the daily case numbers were in single digits, but two of them came in the past nine days: Tuesday and July 6.
Hospitalizations also remain low in Maine, only 18 were hospitalized as of Tuesday, and have been trending downward since their peak in late May.
Until now, Maine has avoided the kind of spikes in cases that other states have seen, although authorities said that does not mean that Maine has overcome the pandemic in any way.
As of Sunday, Maine was one of only three states (with Delaware and New Jersey) reporting declining new case rates compared to the previous week, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. In comparison, 33 states posted higher rates, led by major peaks in highly populated states like Florida, Arizona, Texas, and California. The new case rate was stable in 14 states.
A pedestrian crosses Exchange St. in Portland as he walks along Congress St. Monday, July 13, 2020. (Staff photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Staff photographer) Shawn Patrick Ouellette Staff Photo
Many states that had lifted the restrictions have now been forced to reinstate them.
The United States has now accounted for more than 3.3 million of the world’s 13.1 million cases, or 25 percent, and more than 135,000 of the approximately 572,000 deaths worldwide, or 24 percent, despite the fact that The US accounts for just over 4 percent of the world’s population.
Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, is expected to report to the media on Tuesday afternoon. He will also be a guest on MainePublic’s Maine Calling program at 1 pm to discuss the importance of wearing masks in areas with physical distancing that is not possible.
Facial covers remain a flash point as the pandemic progresses. President Trump, who for a long time resisted encouraging masks, was first photographed with one when he visited the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Saturday.
There is increasing research that concludes that the widespread use of masks in public dramatically reduces the risk of spreading the virus and many experts have said that it is the best tool we have to reopen the economy safely. US CDC Director Robert Redfield underlined that point Monday by saying that if they were all masks in public for the next six weeks, “we could take this (coronavirus) to the ground.”
This story will be updated.
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