Maine CDC reports 120 new COVID-19 cases, two more deaths

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 120 cases of the new coronavirus and two additional deaths on Sunday after the persistently low number of cases prompted government officials to relax some pandemic restrictions last week.

The seven-day mean of new daily cases fell to 190.1, well below the peak of 625.3 on January 14, but still several times the low summer and early fall mean. Spurred by the recent drop in cases, government officials last week moved all of Maine’s counties to the lowest risk “green” environment, meaning all schools are considered safe for personal instruction, with some precautions against infection.

Cumulative COVID-19 cases in Maine rose to 42,529 on Sunday. Of those cases, 33,935 have been confirmed by testing and 8,594 are considered probable cases of COVID-19.

Six hundred and forty-nine people have died from COVID-19 since the start of the Maine pandemic. The two deaths reported Sunday were of 80-year-old women in Cumberland County.

Updated vaccination numbers were not yet available Sunday morning, but as of Saturday, Maine had given 172,725 people the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, with an additional 70,757 receiving a second dose, for a total of 243,482 cumulative vaccinations. That means that 12.85 percent of the 1.3 million people in Maine had their first dose.

However, York County is lagging behind in the distribution of vaccines. The state’s southernmost county has recorded the most per capita cases and about 20 percent of all cumulative cases since the pandemic began, but had given only 11 percent of vaccine doses since Friday, according to statistics from the Maine CDC .

Neighboring Cumberland and Sagadahoc counties vaccinated more than 14 percent of their residents, while York County gave only 9 percent vaccines.

The lagging vaccination coverage has frustrated York County officials, who note that the region has been an epicenter for viral spread in recent months, but that there are only two vaccination clinics. They are at Southern Maine Health Care Hospital in Biddeford and York Hospital; In comparison, Cumberland County has eight clinics.

Hand in hand with the lack of distributors is a lack of doses. State health officials say it is not worth sending precious shots to places where they cannot be put under arms for now.

“I’m not going to send doses to places where they can’t be delivered,” said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, in response to a recent question about vaccine distribution in York County. ‘I have to make sure there is capacity on the ground to administer those doses; otherwise sending a lot of doses will not help anyone else. “

However, Shah added that he hoped to help improve the distribution system in the province soon. And as is the case, a massive vaccination clinic is expected to open in Sanford by the end of this month. The clinic will open in the former Marshalls store on Main Street.

As of Sunday, there were 4,609 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 1,227 in Aroostook, 11,948 in Cumberland, 873 in Franklin, 852 in Hancock, 3,462 in Kennebec, 612 in Knox, 538 in Lincoln, 2,117 in Oxford, 3,678 in Penobscot, by county as of Sunday, in Piscataquis, 848 in Sagadahoc, 1210 in Somerset, 566 in Waldo, 692 in Washington and 9055 in York.

At age 15.2 percent of patients were under 20, while 18 percent were in their twenties, 14.4 percent in their 30s, 13.1 percent in their 40s, 15.3 percent in their 50s, 11.7 percent in their sixties and 6.7 percent in their seventies and 5.7 percent were 80 years or older.

Of the 101 patients with COVID-19 in hospitals in Maine on Sunday, 28 were in intensive care and 10 on ventilator. The state had 112 intensive care beds totaling 389 and 237 of 319 fans. There were also 446 alternative fans.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there were more than 108.7 million known cases of COVID-19 and nearly 2.4 million deaths around the world Sunday night. The United States had 27.6 million cases and 485,300 deaths.

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