This story sheds light on the times when the record number of COVID-19 deaths reported on Friday in Maine actually occurred.
Maine recorded six new deaths from coronavirus on Friday and added 35 new deaths reported in December, as 782 new cases were reported.
Friday’s report raises the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 28,407, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s 27,625 on Thursday.
Of these, 23,803 were confirmed positive, while 4,604 were classified as “probable cases”, reported the Maine CDC.
All deaths reported on Friday bring the death toll across the state to 426. Almost all deaths occurred in Mainers over the age of 60. The 41 new deaths reported were technically a record, but 35 of them occurred after a review of vital Maine CDC statistics that was only released on Friday afternoon, after the agency released the death figures.
The six new deaths reported in the past 48 hours include a woman in her 90s and a man in her 80s in Aroostook County, a man in her 70s in Cumberland County, a man in her 70s in Penobscot County and two women in the 70s and 80s of York County.
The 35 deaths in December include a woman in her 70s, a woman in her 80s and a man in her 90s in Androscoggin County; a woman in her 80s, two women in her 90s, a man in her 50s, a man in her 70s and a man in her 80s in Aroostook County; a man in his 70s in Cumberland County; a man in his 70s and a man in his 80s in Franklin County; a woman in her 80s, four women in her 90s and a man in her 90s in Hancock County; a woman in her 60s, a woman in her 80s, a man in her 70s and a man in her 90s in Kennebec County; two women in their 80s, a woman in their 90s, a man in their 60s and a man in their 70s in Oxford County; a woman in her 90s and a man in her 80s in Penobscot County; a man in his 70s in Washington County; and a woman in her 70s, three women in her 90s and a man in her 80s in York County.
Friday’s report marked the biggest single-day increase in new cases since December 23, when Maine saw 753 new cases. It is the seventh time in the last 10 days that the new cases exceed 400, the fourth time this week when they reach 500 and the second time this year when they exceed 700.
This occurs as the high transmission of the virus continues its outbreak for months, bringing high levels of transmission in the community, which the Maine CDC defines as a rate of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people, even for counties previously largely spared the worst of the pandemic .
There are two criteria for establishing transmission in the community: at least 10 confirmed cases and at least 25% of them are unrelated to known cases or trips.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 501.7, up from 489.3 the previous day, down from 528.3 the previous week and 297.3 the previous month.
So far, 1,150 Maine residents have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Information on those who are hospitalized was not immediately available.
As of Friday, 43,362 inhabitants of the continent have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, while another 3,271 have received two doses.
Most cases – 16,959 – occurred in Mainers under the age of 50, while more cases were reported in women than in men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Friday, there were 1,251,474 negative test results out of 1,286,695 overall. Almost 2.7 percent of all tests were positive, data from the Maine CDC show.
Coronavirus hit most heavily in Cumberland County, where 8,400 cases have been reported and where most virus deaths – 110 – have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,037), Aroostook (819), Franklin (508), Hancock (611), Kennebec (2,099), Knox (405), Lincoln (348), Oxford (1,272), Penobscot (2,452), Piscataquis (137), Sagadahoc (489), Somerset (826), Waldo (395), Washington (423) and York counties (6,170). Information on where 16 additional cases were reported was not immediately available.
As of Friday afternoon, the coronavirus has made 21,717,216 people sick in all 50 states, in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the US Virgin Islands, in addition to causing 367,143 deaths from according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.