Maine CDC reports 158 new COVID-19 cases, no more deaths

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported 158 cases of the new coronavirus and no new deaths, while a group of US Republican senators led by Susan Collins of Maine announced plans to launch a small-scale COVID-19 relief package.

Collins and nine other senators said on Sunday that they would offer President Biden a commitment to his $ 1.9 trillion aid plan, which would likely omit items like a $ 15 national minimum wage. They said they had requested a meeting with the president and would release details of the plan on Monday.

Maine’s cumulative COVID-19 cases increased to 39,324 on Sunday. Of these cases, 31,689 were confirmed by tests and 7,635 are considered probable cases of COVID-19.

Five hundred and ninety people have died of COVID-19 since the Maine pandemic began, and 160 patients were in hospitals with the disease on Sunday.

In a letter to Biden, the group of senators led by Collins said he was offering his pledge in response to the president’s requests for unity in his inaugural address and the first days of his term.

“We want to work in good faith with you and your management to address the health, economic and social challenges of the COVID crisis,” they wrote.

With Republican senators signaling that they will not support Biden’s plan in sufficient numbers to reach the bipartisan limit of 60 votes, Democrats have prepared to use a budgetary maneuver that would allow them to pass legislation with a party vote in the 50-50 Senate.

In a press release, the 10 Republican senators said their pledge includes Biden’s $ 160 billion proposal for vaccines, testing and health care. The Republican alternative would also add more relief to Americans in need, the senators said.

Next to Collins in the group are Sens. Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Mitt Romney from Utah, Rob Portman from Ohio, Todd Young from Indiana, Shelley Moore Capito from West Virginia, Jerry Moran from Kansas, Mike Rounds from South Dakota and Thom Tillis from North Carolina.

Meanwhile, Maine is still struggling to build a centralized vaccine delivery system with enough doses to immunize the population as quickly as planned. But Maine is still moving faster than many other states.

As of Sunday, Maine has given 112,916 people the first dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, with an additional 38,407 having received a second dose, for a total of 151,323 cumulative vaccinations. More than 8% of Maine’s 1.3 million people received their first dose, compared with the national average of 7.5% on Saturday, according to Bloomberg News.

Although Maine has already given about 30,000 doses to people 70 and older, some older residents say they are having trouble knowing when it is their turn to have an injection. Vaccine candidates are still registering through their medical service providers, each with different plans and schedules, rather than through a centralized state system. And after they register, the older inhabitants say they have no more news of commitments, which leaves them wondering if they are going to fall into the hole.

Maine’s CDC figures indicate, however, that the state is distributing doses almost as fast as it can get from the federal government. At the end of last week, health professionals administered at least 76 percent of the 169,225 first and second doses that arrived in Maine.

Maine is near the top in terms of speed and efficiency in vaccine delivery, but some even faster states, like West Virginia, have done better by giving doses to independent pharmacies rather than signing a federal partnership with Walgreens and CVS. Health officials in Maine have already started to redirect doses to independent pharmacies.

County by county until Sunday, there were 4,313 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 1,141 in Aroostook, 11,197 in Cumberland, 771 in Franklin, 779 in Hancock, 3,113 in Kennebec, 578 in Knox, 471 in Lincoln, 1,908 in Oxford, 3,420 in Penobscot, 203 in Piscataquis, 776 in Sagadahoc, 1,089 in Somerset, 512 in Waldo, 622 in Washington and 8,429 in York.

By age, 14.7 percent of patients were under 20 years old, while 17.9 percent were 20 years old, 14.5 percent were in their 30s, 13 percent were 40 years old, 15.5 percent were 50 years old, 11.8 percent were 60 years old, 6.8 percent were in their 70s, and 5.8 percent were 80 or older.

Of 160 COVID-19 patients in Maine hospitals on Sunday, 52 were in intensive care and 29 were on ventilators. The state had 95 beds of intensive care units available out of a total of 391, and 224 fans available out of 320. There were also 443 alternative fans.

Worldwide, on Sunday night, there were 102.8 million known cases of COVID-19 and 2.2 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 26.1 million cases and 440,942 deaths.

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