The Maine Disease Control and Prevention Center on Sunday reported 350 cases of the new coronavirus and an additional death, raising the state’s average of seven days even further as older Mainers wait for guidance on how to get a vaccine.
The state’s cumulative cases increased to 25,592. Of these cases, 21,693 were confirmed by tests and 3,899 are considered probable cases of the coronavirus.
Three hundred and fifty-nine people have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in Maine. The person who died on Saturday was a man from Hancock County in his 60s, said the Maine CDC.
The seven-day average of new daily cases in the state reached 531.4 on Sunday, and hospitalizations increased to 190 across the state. Meanwhile, Maine has given 32,995 people at least the first dose of a vaccine against COVID-19.
Maine was one of the fastest states – in proportion to the population – to distribute its allocation of COVID-19 vaccines, according to data maintained by Bloomberg News. But some older residents are calling for clearer communication from state officials and vaccine providers about when it will be time for them to be immunized.
The first doses in Maine go to frontline health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, but people over 75 will start receiving priority in the next phase of the state’s distribution plan. This leaves older residents wondering how to get on the line.
In Florida, the decision by state officials to distribute the vaccine on a first-come, first-served basis has led to long lines and overnight camps at vaccination facilities. The Maine CDC says it is still working on the details of vaccine distribution in this next phase of the plan and is considering moving people over 75 ahead of essential workers in the vaccine queue.
The public health agency said recently that officials are likely to rely on primary care physicians or other medical professionals to notify older patients that they are eligible for a vaccine.
The rapid launch of the vaccine in Maine means that the state had already administered about 50% of the doses provided by the federal government last week. This is a larger proportion than any other state.
Meanwhile, last week, the Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor saw a sudden increase in patients admitted to COVID-19. Eastern Maine’s biggest hospital saw its daily average inpatients rise to 51.9 in the week ending Thursday, down from 44 the week before and 26.6 the week before.
County by county in Maine since the start of the pandemic, there have been 2,754 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 713 in Aroostook, 7,627 in Cumberland, 464 in Franklin, 557 in Hancock, 1,907 in Kennebec, 379 in Knox, 312 in Lincoln, 1,148 in Oxford , 2,222 in Penobscot, 120 in Piscataquis, 404 in Sagadahoc, 761 in Somerset, 385 in Waldo, 389 in Washington and 5,443 in York.
By age, 13.8 percent of patients were under 20 years old, while 17.9 percent were 20 years old, 14.6 percent were 30 years old, 13.1 percent were 40 years old, 15.7 percent were 50 years old, 11.9% were 60 years old, 6.9% were in their 70s and 6.2% were 80 years old or more.
Maine hospitals had 190 patients with COVID-19 on Sunday, 47 of whom were in intensive care and 20 on ventilators. The state had 88 intensive care unit beds available out of a total of 384 and 213 ventilators available out of 320. There were also 443 alternative ventilators.
Worldwide, on Sunday morning, there were almost 84.6 million known cases of COVID-19 and 1.8 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 20.4 million cases and more than 350,000 deaths.
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Older mainers are waiting for a word about the vaccine: how will they know we’re here?
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