Maine CDC reports 415 new COVID-19 cases, two more deaths - Press Herald

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The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 415 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths on Saturday as the delta variant continues to spread aggressively across the state.

The new cases are the most reported in a single day since May 3, indicating that the current surge in infections and hospitalizations is likely far from over in Maine. Although the number of people hospitalized statewide with COVID-19 declined from 143 to 132 between Friday and Saturday, hospitalization trends have typically lagged behind cases by about two weeks throughout the pandemic.

There were 69 people in critical care as of Saturday morning – down slightly from Friday’s record-tying figure of 71 patients in intensive care units – and 29 individuals were connected to ventilators. ICUs in Maine are as busy as they have ever been during the pandemic as hospitals deal with both a spike in COVID patients but also other severely ill or injured patients during the busy summer season.

The Maine CDC reported that 45 of the 332 ICU beds in Maine hospitals were available on Saturday. The number of available critical beds had dipped to 34 on Thursday, which was the lowest level since at least last September.

Maine’s cumulative COVID-19 cases rose to 75,381 on Saturday. Of those, 54,470 have been confirmed by testing and 20,911 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of new daily cases was 246, and the 14-day average was 204.3.

Nine hundred thirty people have died with COVID-19 in Maine since the pandemic began. Demographic information about the two reported deaths wasn’t available from the Maine CDC on Saturday.

On Thursday, the heads of four large Maine health care organizations implored residents to take precautions such as social distancing and hand washing and, if eligible, to get vaccinated.

“The more COVID-19 patients we take care of in hospitals, the less resources we have to take care of all the other things we need to do,” Dr. Joan Boomsma, chief medical officer at MaineHealth, the parent company of Maine Medical Center in Portland, said during a joint news conference. Hospitals “don’t have many more tricks up our sleeve” to add capacity for COVID-19 patients, Boomsma said.

By Saturday morning, Maine had given 840,955 people the final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Among people 12 and older, the population currently eligible for vaccination, 71.01 percent are now fully vaccinated.

Maine as of Friday had recorded 1,818 “breakthrough” cases, which occur when a fully vaccinated person contracts COVID-19. Unvaccinated people still make up the vast majority of new cases, and COVID-19 vaccines provide strong protection against serious illness even if a vaccinated person catches the disease.

County by county as of Saturday, there had been 8,757 coronavirus cases in Androscoggin, 2,303 in Aroostook, 18,291 in Cumberland, 1,501 in Franklin, 1,601 in Hancock, 7,049 in Kennebec, 1,316 in Knox, 1,226 in Lincoln, 3,878 in Oxford, 7,408 in Penobscot, 732 in Piscataquis, 1,560 in Sagadahoc, 2,571 in Somerset, 1,476 in Waldo, 1,047 in Washington and 14,664 in York.

By age, 19.2 percent of patients were under 20, while 18.4 percent were in their 20s, 15.2 percent were in their 30s, 13.3 percent were in their 40s, 14.3 percent were in their 50s, 10.1 percent were in their 60s, 5.3 percent were in their 70s, and 4.2 percent were 80 or older.

Around the world late Saturday afternoon, there were 215.8 million known cases of COVID-19 and nearly 4.5 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 38.7 million cases and 637,138 deaths.

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