The number of COVID-19 patients in Maine hospitals remained near pandemic record levels Sunday as the state weathers one of its worst coronavirus surges.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 225 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized on Sunday, 10 fewer than the record 235 patients in hospitals on Saturday.
Of those, 81 patients were in critical care and 36 were on ventilators, slightly lower than the record number of 88 intensive care patients and 40 on ventilators set last Wednesday.
The Maine CDC does not release full coronavirus data, including new case numbers, on Sundays, but has been updating hospital capacity statistics daily.
There were just 36 available critical care beds in the state Sunday, out of a total of 341. There were 184 available ventilators out of 299 in Maine hospitals.
The number of patients in intensive care and on ventilators has slipped slightly in recent days, but remains higher than during any of the other COVID-19 surges in the state, including last fall and winter.
During the peak of the winter surge in mid-January, hospitalizations for COVID-19 topped out at about 207 patients. No more than 71 patients were in intensive care and 37 were on ventilators in that month.
Although Maine has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, with almost 65 percent of the total population fully vaccinated, the highly contagious delta variant of the virus has found pockets of unvaccinated people at high risk of serious illness.
In a media briefing last week, Maine CDC’s director, Dr. Nirav Shah, said clusters of unvaccinated people are driving case levels in Maine. At least 65 percent of people who become sick enough to be hospitalized and more than 90 percent in intensive care are unvaccinated, Shah said.
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