The Maine Disease Control and Prevention Center on Sunday reported 160 cases of the new coronavirus and two additional deaths, another moderate increase in cases that occurs while Maine officials hope to save the summer tourist season with a combination of vaccine immunity and reduced restrictions.
Last week, Governor Janet Mills announced the reversal of travel restrictions in other New England states and also decreased precautions in the bar and tasting service. Mills’ decision calls for widespread distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in Maine by the summer, hoping to keep the state open for its normally lucrative tourism season.
Maine’s cumulative COVID-19 cases increased to 45,794 on Sunday. Of these, 35,846 were confirmed by tests and 9,948 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of new daily cases was 167.4.
Seven hundred and six people have died of COVID-19 since the Maine pandemic began. The Maine CDC released information about the two people reported on Sunday as having died without correlating them by age, county or sex. They were a man and a woman from Cumberland County and York County, one in his 70s and the other in his 80s or older.
Restrictions on travel, business and public meetings will be even more flexible in May.
The relative public hunting season has left entrepreneurs feeling optimistic, although some health experts fear that the public will abandon precautions designed to contain the virus still present.
“I really care about the April school holidays for us,” said Dr. Meghan May, professor of microbiology and infectious diseases at the University of New England, to the Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram. “People can feel like they’ve been stuck for so long, so they say, ‘Let’s go to Disney.’ “
Much of Maine’s readiness for the summer season will depend on its continued effort to vaccinate the population. As of Sunday morning, 268,563 Maine residents had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 149,703 the second. Out of the Maine population of 1.3 million, 19.98 percent received their first dose, according to Maine CDC statistics.
A new Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and about 15,000 doses were shipped to Maine last week. But no dose is being delivered here this week, state officials say.
County by county until Sunday, there were 4,896 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 1,295 in Aroostook, 12,857 in Cumberland, 917 in Franklin, 940 in Hancock, 3,743 in Kennebec, 669 in Knox, 594 in Lincoln, 2,273 in Oxford, 4,051 in Penobscot, 328 in Piscataquis, 894 in Sagadahoc, 1,265 in Somerset, 606 in Waldo, 726 in Washington and 9,733 in York.
By age, 15.5 percent of patients were under 20 years old, while 18.1 percent were 20 years old, 14.4 percent were 30 years old, 13.2 percent were 40 years old, 15.2 percent were 50 years old, 11.6% were 60 years old, 6.5% were in their 70s and 5.5% were 80 years old or more.
Of the 67 patients with COVID-19 in hospitals in Maine on Sunday, 16 were in intensive care and eight were on ventilators. The state had 111 beds of intensive care units available out of a total of 387, and 246 ventilators available from 319. There were also 446 alternative ventilators.
Worldwide, on Sunday night, there were 116.7 million known cases of COVID-19 and 2.59 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 28.9 million cases and 524,935 deaths.
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