Maine CDC reports 51 coronavirus cases, no new deaths

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported 51 cases of the novel coronavirus and no additional deaths, a small respite from surging hospitalizations and new case totals across the state.

Meanwhile, the University of Maine System reported three new cases among facilities management employees as part of a cluster of infections on the Orono campus.

Despite the smaller case increase in Maine on Sunday, the overall trend is dire. The state had 1,606 active cases on Sunday, an increase of more than 500 over the past week. Hospitalizations have also increased dramatically – from 17 on Oct. 30 to 48 on Sunday.

Whereas hospitalizations in the past have been concentrated at Maine Medical Center in Portland, the new wave is spread across many hospitals, especially in central and eastern Maine, a Press Herald analysis found.

Maine’s cumulative cases rose to 7,693 on Sunday, a net increase of 90 cases since Saturday. The reported number of new cases on Sunday – 51 – is less than the difference in daily totals because the Maine CDC revises its numbers of cumulative total cases based on how many “probable” cases later test negative, and on the results of contact tracing investigations.

Of those 7,693 cumulative cases, 6,843 have been confirmed by testing and 850 are considered probable cases of COVID-19.

One hundred fifty-two people have died with COVID-19 in Maine, and 5,935 have recovered from the disease.

Last week, Maine set successive case total records on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Sunday, Maine’s seven-day average of new daily cases reached 144.6, more than triple what it was two weeks ago.

The statewide surge has forced Gov. Janet Mills to mandate the use of face coverings in public places and cancel the planned reopening of indoor service for bars. Mills last week also reduced the maximum number of people allowed to gather indoors, from 100 to 50, and ended exemptions to safety restrictions for visitors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Four counties are now at the elevated “yellow” risk level for school reopening: Knox, Franklin, Somerset and Washington. The designation, set by the Maine Department of Education, means that school officials in those counties are recommended to limit the number of people in buildings and possibly curtail or postpone extracurricular activities such as school sports.

The Maine CDC is investigating outbreaks at long-term care facilities across the state, including at Russell Park Rehabilitation and Living Center, a nursing home in Lewiston where 44 residents and 20 staff tested positive last week. At least six other facilities were sites of outbreaks as of last week.

Finally, the University of Maine System on Saturday reported that it had identified 10 cases of COVID-19 among administrative facilities management employees at the University of Maine in Orono. Those employees have been isolated, and all 240 facilities management employees are receiving tests.

On Sunday, the University of Maine System reported three new cases among facilities management employees as part of that cluster of infections. There were 27 total active cases across the system’s eight schools: 18 at the University of Maine, two at the University of Maine at Farmington, two at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, one at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, and four at the University of Southern Maine.

UMaine Farmington and UMaine Fort Kent each identified one new case on Sunday, both among students.

County by county in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 954 cases in Androscoggin, 77 in Aroostook, 2,942 in Cumberland, 125 in Franklin, 101 in Hancock, 449 in Kennebec, 141 in Knox, 80 in Lincoln, 194 in Oxford, 370 in Penobscot, 18 in Piscataquis, 97 in Sagadahoc, 273 in Somerset, 175 in Waldo, 104 in Washington, and 1,591 in York.

By age, 12.8 percent of patients were under 20, while 17.4 percent were in their 20s, 15.3 percent were in their 30s, 13.6 percent were in their 40s, 15.8 percent were in their 50s, 11.3 percent were in their 60s, 7.4 percent were in their 70s, and 6.4 percent were 80 or older.

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

Maine’s hospitals had 48 patients with COVID-19 on Sunday, of whom 13 were in intensive care and seven were on ventilators. The state had 95 intensive care unit beds available of a total 384, and 238 ventilators available of 315. There were also 444 alternative ventilators.

Around the world on Sunday night, there were 50.2 million known cases of COVID-19 and more than 1.2 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 9.9 million cases and 237,542 deaths.