Another 17 people died in Maine from COVID-19; 133 new cases

Maine health officials reported an additional 17 deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday, and 133 new cases.

However, none of the 17 new deaths occurred in the past 24 hours. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention periodically reviews death certificates to see if COVID-19 cases contributed to any deaths that have not been previously registered with the health agency.

Sixteen of the deaths reported on Tuesday were between January 25th and March 1st, while one occurred in November 2020. Twelve of the deaths were people aged 80 and over, three were people in their 60s, one person had 50 years old and another was in her 70s.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 46,059 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 in Maine and 723 deaths. With 133 new cases, it was the second day in a row that the daily case count fell below the recent seven-day average daily case counts in the 160s. Cases have dropped dramatically since a peak in mid-January of more than 600 a day, but have stagnated since mid-February.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 increased slightly to 75 on Tuesday, including 21 in intensive care and seven on a ventilator. Like the cases, hospitalizations have stabilized in the past few weeks, after falling steadily from a peak of more than 200 in mid-January.

Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Disease Control and Prevention Center, and Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew, will speak to the media at 2 pm today.

As of Tuesday, 274,646 people have received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, representing 20.43 percent of Maine’s population. In addition, 156,174, or 11.62% of the state’s 1.3 million population, received the final dose of the vaccine. Approximately 74% of residents over 70 have already received at least one injection.

Amid an increase in vaccinations and a reduction in cases, Maine should ease its COVID-19 restrictions into the summer tourist season. Governor Janet Mills announced last week that New England state residents are no longer required to quarantine or report a negative result upon arrival in Maine. Previously, the only exempt states were Vermont and New Hampshire.

As of May 1, travel restrictions will be lifted for all states, unless Maine places restrictions on target states based on increased case counts and other metrics tending in the wrong direction.

Kristi Holmquist, a fourth-grade teacher at Dirigo Elementary School in Dixfield, receives a COVID-19 vaccine on Friday afternoon from nurse Penny Michaud at a drive-through clinic at the Med-Care Ambulance in Mexico. Andree Kehn / Sun Journal

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