The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday reported 19 new cases of the novel coronavirus and no additional deaths.

Maine’s cumulative cases rose to 4,701. Of those, 4,230 have been confirmed by testing and 471 are considered probable cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

To date, 134 people have died with COVID-19 in Maine.

Subtracting the number of people who have recovered – 4,076 – and died, there were 491 active cases on Monday.

Maine health officials are keeping a close eye on York County, which has emerged as a worrisome epicenter of the pandemic in Maine after an impressive summer tourist season. On Friday, the state downgraded the county’s readiness for school reopening because of the elevated risk of virus transmission, making it the only Maine county that is classified as yellow under the color-coded system.

The Maine CDC is investigating outbreaks at the Sanford Fire Department, Calvary Baptist Church and the York County Jail. The outbreak at the jail has been connected to an Aug. 7 wedding reception in Millinocket that has now been linked to 147 cases. Three people have died with COVID-19 cases linked to the event, according to the Maine CDC.

Driven by these outbreaks, York County’s active COVID-19 case count per capita Aug. 28 surged ahead of Cumberland County’s for the first time and on Thursday stood at 7.4 per 10,000 residents, compared to 6 for Cumberland and 5 for Androscoggin. The county’s seven-day rolling average of new confirmed cases hit an all-time high of 13 per day Thursday, a per capita rate nearly quadruple that of Cumberland County and far and away the highest in the state.

State health officials are still trying to determine if 10 cases at Calvary Baptist Church in Sanford are linked to the wedding or the wedding reception. The pastor from the church, Todd Bell, officiated at the East Millinocket wedding. In recent weeks, videos of Calvary Baptist Church services posted online showed people without masks and not observing social distancing, including choir members who clustered on stage to sing together.

Bell held in-person services on Sunday, but it was not clear from streaming audio of the service how many people attended or if they were wearing masks. It also was not clear if the church was following the state’s limit on 50-person indoor gatherings. The pastor said during a radio address that he has engaged a nationally known lawyer, David Gibbs III of the National Center for Life and Liberty, to defend the church’s religious rights.

The University of Maine System on Sunday announced a case of COVID-19 had been detected in a student at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, but no new cases were announced Monday. The student is in isolation and other students have been instructed to quarantine, according to a university official.

The university system now has a total of 11 active cases, one fewer than on Sunday. Those cases include eight at the University of Maine in Orono and two at the University of Southern Maine. More than 13,300 tests have been conducted across the university system since July 22.

Bowdoin College on Saturday reported a new case of COVID-19 among its on-campus students. On Aug. 29, it moved its coronavirus alert status to “orange,” meaning students are prohibited from leaving the Brunswick campus for personal reasons. Many kinds of in-person gatherings are restricted or canceled. There are now two active cases among on-campus students; no faculty or staff members have tested positive for the disease.

County by county in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 624 COVID-19 cases in Androscoggin, 40 in Aroostook, 2,221 in Cumberland, 53 in Franklin, 50 in Hancock, 197 in Kennebec, 34 in Knox, 36 in Lincoln, 74 in Oxford, 248 in Penobscot, eight in Piscataquis, 62 in Sagadahoc, 62 in Somerset, 72 in Waldo, 15 in Washington, and 905 in York.

By age, 10.3 percent of patients were under 20, while 17.1 percent were in their 20s, 15.4 percent were in their 30s, 14.5 percent were in their 40s, 16.1 percent were in their 50s, 11.4 percent were in their 60s, 7.7 percent were in their 70s, and 7.4 percent were 80 or over.

Women still make up a slight majority of cases, at 51 percent.

Maine’s hospitals had eight COVID-19 patients on Monday, of whom three were in intensive care and two were on ventilators. Maine had 132 intensive care unit beds available of a statewide 386, and 262 ventilators available of 319. The state also had 442 alternative ventilators.

Around the world late Monday afternoon, there were 27.2 million known cases of COVID-19 and more than 890,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had almost 6.3 million cases and 189,122 deaths.

« Previous

Months after massive data breach, Maine nonprofits still notifying donors

Next »

Labor Day rally calls attention to need for aid during pandemic