This story is being updated.
Another six Mainers have died when health officials reported 417 new cases of coronavirus in the state on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 16,760. Of these, 14,960 have been positively confirmed, while 2,070 were classified as “probable cases,” according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The bureau revised Monday’s cumulative total to 16,343, down from 16,349, meaning there was an increase of 411 from the previous day’s report. As the Maine CDC continues to investigate previously reported cases, some are determined not to have been the coronavirus, or coronavirus cases not involving Mainers. Those are removed from the state’s cumulative total. The Bangor Daily News reports on the number of new cases reported to the Maine CDC in the past 24 hours, rather than the increase in daily cumulative cases.
A man in his 60’s and a man in his 80’s from Androscoggin County, a man in his 70’s and a woman in his 70’s from Cumberland County, a woman in his 90’s from Hancock County and a man in his 80’s from York County have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 265. There have been 26 deaths in the state in the past week. Nearly all deaths in Mainers were over 60 years old.
New cases have been reported in Androscoggin (25), Aroostook (10), Cumberland (152), Franklin (4), Hancock (5), Kennebec (20), Knox (2), Lincoln (5), Oxford (19), Penobscot (34), Piscataquis (5), Sagadahoc (2), Somerset (3), Waldo (6), Washington (7) and York (118) counties, state data show.
The seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 388.3, up from 368 a day ago, up from 321.6 a week ago, and up from 181 a month ago.
Health officials have warned Mainers that there is “vigorous and widespread” community-wide transmission going on. Each county sees a high community transmission, which the Maine CDC defines as a number of cases of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people.
There are two criteria for determining community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are unrelated to known cases or travel.
So far, 909 Mainers have once been hospitalized with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Information about those currently in the hospital was not immediately available.
Meanwhile, 66 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing the total number of people recovered to 10,614. That means there are 5,881 active confirmed and “probable” cases in the state, up from 5,542 on Monday.
A majority of cases – 9,868 – occurred in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Monday, there were 1,030,077 negative test results out of 1,052,653 in total. About 2.1 percent of all tests came back positive, the most recently available data from the Maine CDC shows.
The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 5,134 cases have been reported and where most of the virus deaths – 81 – are concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (2,051), Aroostook (300), Franklin (349), Hancock (405), Kennebec (1,241), Knox (275), Lincoln (194), Oxford (693), Penobscot (1,343), Piscataquis (78), Sagadahoc (211), Somerset (578), Waldo (294), Washington (222) and York (3390) counties. Information on where two more cases were reported was not immediately available.
On Tuesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 16,532,877 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and caused 300,886 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.