The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported 224 cases of the novel coronavirus and no additional deaths, an increase more in line with the recent upward trend after a holiday break drove down testing numbers Friday and Saturday.

Maine’s cumulative cases rose to 11,508 on Sunday, of which 10,315 have been confirmed by testing and 1,193 are considered probable cases of COVID-19.

One hundred ninety-one people have died with COVID-19 in Maine, and 8,952 have recovered from the disease. Maine had 2,365 active cases on Sunday.

Maine’s seven-day average of daily new cases now stands at 165.1, down from a peak of 221 on Nov. 25.

Maine reported only 22 new cases on Saturday, but the low figure was likely the result of labs across the nation taking a break over Thanksgiving, a Maine CDC official said. The public health agency, which closed its lab on Thanksgiving but was open Friday, received fewer samples from labs in Maine and across the country at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations continue to rise across Maine. As of late Saturday morning, 125 people with COVID-19 were in Maine hospitals, an increase of six since Friday. Updated hospital statistics weren’t available as of Sunday night.

Several Maine hospitals last week reported record numbers of inpatients with COVID-19, many of them in central and eastern Maine.

Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor treated an average of 22.2 COVID-19 inpatients each day for the six days ending Wednesday – the highest COVID-19 patient load in the state. MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta and Central Maine Medical Center  in Lewiston also broke their own records for COVID-19 patients.

York County also has seen a surge in hospitalizations, with Maine Health Care Medical Center in Biddeford and York Hospital reporting record highs.

The University of Maine System on Sunday reported 114 active cases across its eight schools, two cases more than Saturday.

The University of Southern Maine had one new case in an employee, and one student at the University of Maine at Presque Isle also tested positive for COVID-19.

Across all eight schools, there were 104 active cases at the University of Maine in Orono, four at the University of Maine at Farmington, three at USM, two at the University of Maine at Augusta and one at UMPI.

County by county in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 1,495 coronavirus cases in Androscoggin, 137 in Aroostook, 3,767 in Cumberland, 212 in Franklin, 243 in Hancock, 768 in Kennebec, 202 in Knox, 155 in Lincoln, 332 in Oxford, 857 in Penobscot, 42 in Piscataquis, 149 in Sagadahoc, 445 in Somerset, 228 in Waldo, 191 in Washington, and 2,283 in York.

By age, 13 percent of patients were under 20, while 18.6 percent were in their 20s, 14.9 percent were in their 30s, 13.2 percent were in their 40s, 15.4 percent were in their 50s, 11.6 percent were in their 60s, 7.2 percent were in their 70s, and 6.2 percent were 80 or older.

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

Of the 125 patients with COVID-19 in Maine hospitals on Saturday, 49 were in intensive care and 18 were on ventilators. The state had 112 intensive care unit beds available of a total 379, and 230 ventilators available of 315. There were also 444 alternative ventilators.

Around the world on Sunday night, there were 62.6 million known cases of COVID-19 and 1.45 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 13.3 million cases and 266,813 deaths.

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