Another Mainer has died as health officials on Thursday reported 43 new coronavirus cases across the state.
Thursday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 5,431. Of those, 4,865 have been confirmed positive, while 566 were classified as “probable cases,” according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency revised Wednesday’s cumulative total to 5,388, down from 5,391, meaning there was an increase of 40 over the previous day’s report, state data show. As the Maine CDC continues to investigate previously reported cases, some are determined to have not been the coronavirus, or coronavirus cases not involving Mainers. Those are removed from the state’s cumulative total.
New cases were reported in Androscoggin (13), Cumberland (5), Kennebec (6), Knox (1), Penobscot (2), Sagadahoc (1), Waldo (1) and York (14) counties, state data show.
The seven-day average for new coronavirus cases has risen to 33.9, up from 33.6 a week ago but up from 24.6 a month ago.
The latest death was a man in his 50s from York County, bringing the statewide death toll to 142. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
So far, 451 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 12 people are currently hospitalized, with two in critical care and one on a ventilator.
Meanwhile, 26 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total recoveries to 4,704. That means there are 585 active confirmed and “probable” cases in the state, which is up from 572 on Wednesday.
A majority of the cases — 3,142— have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Wednesday, there have been 437,431 negative test results out of 444,931 overall. About 1.5 percent of all tests have come back positive, the most recently available Maine CDC data show.
The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 2,333 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 70 — have been concentrated. It is one of four counties — the others are Androscoggin, Penobscot and York, with 751, 257 and 1,211 cases, respectively — where “community transmission” has been confirmed, according to the Maine CDC.
There are two criteria for establishing community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are not connected to either known cases or travel. That second condition has not yet been “satisfied” in other counties.
Other cases have been reported in Aroostook (43), Franklin (62), Hancock (54), Kennebec (221), Knox (42), Lincoln (47), Oxford (152), Piscataquis (9), Sagadahoc (69), Somerset (86), Waldo (75) and Washington (16) counties. Information about where three additional cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
As of Thursday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 7,245,228 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 207,211 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
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