Maine CDC reports 214 COVID-19 cases, plus five deaths

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday reported 214 new cases of the coronavirus and five additional deaths, ending a week when Mainers met for a new vaccine record and a new variant COVID-19 was detected in the state.

Health officials reported on Friday the first case of a variant from Brazil, found in a resident of Franklin County with no recent travel history, indicating that the variant is probably already in the community. And earlier in the week, a vaccine registry across the state saw more than 30,000 registrations in just a few days.

Maine’s cumulative COVID-19 cases increased to 49,653 on Saturday. Of these, 38,221 were confirmed by testing and 11,432 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of new daily cases was 194.4 on Saturday.

Seven hundred and thirty-six people have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in Maine. The Maine CDC released widespread information about the five people reported on Saturday as having died, with no correlation by county, age or sex. Three were from Kennebec County and each was from Androscoggin and Piscataquis. Three were women and two were men. One was in her 40s, two in her 60s, one in her 70s and one in her 80s or older.

Saturday’s case count was down from Friday, when Maine saw its highest case total since late February: 253. But it was the fourth consecutive day of more than 200 new cases.

Cumberland and York counties saw the highest case growth since the previous Saturday, with 284 and 294 cases, respectively. Penobscot County came next, with 182 last week, and Androscoggin and Kennebec counties were not far behind.

When a new variant of COVID-19 is detected in Maine, the state CDC conducts a rigorous contact tracking program to see where it may have come from. The Franklin County resident infected with the Brazilian variant had not traveled recently, indicating that it is already spreading through the community.

Immunologists have raised concerns about this variant because it appears to be resistant to COVID-19 antibodies, which means that people who have already had the disease can be reinfected more easily. Many of the variants of the COVID-19 are also more contagious.

The “smooth launch” of the vaccine registration system across the state of Maine on Tuesday attracted more than 30,000 registrations in the first few days. The system, designed by the same company that set up California’s huge registration center, went live on vaccinateme.maine.gov earlier last week.

Maine’s new registration system will not replace the registration and scheduling systems already run by medical providers like Northern Light Health and MaineHealth, said a Maine CDC official. Some providers, however, said they planned to move to the state system.

People over 50 are now eligible for injections, and all residents aged 16 and over will be on April 19.

On Saturday, 404,818 Mainers received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 250,588 received the final dose. Out of the Maine population of 1.3 million, 30.12 percent received their first dose, according to Maine CDC statistics.

County by county until Saturday, there were 5,209 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 1,387 in Aroostook, 13,779 in Cumberland, 976 in Franklin, 1,025 in Hancock, 4,204 in Kennebec, 795 in Knox, 647 in Lincoln, 2,387 in Oxford, 4,519 in Penobscot, 377 in Piscataquis, 962 in Sagadahoc, 1,353 in Somerset, 689 in Waldo, 760 in Washington and 10,475 in York.

By age, 16.2 percent of patients were under 20 years old, while 18.1 percent were in their 20s, 14.4 percent in their 30s, 13.2 percent in their 40s, 15, 2 percent in their 50s, 11.5 percent in their 60s, 6.2 percent in their 70s and 5.2 percent were 80 or older.

Of the 78 patients with COVID-19 in Maine hospitals on Saturday, 26 were in intensive care and eight were on ventilators. The state had 103 beds of intensive care units available out of a total of 368, and 248 ventilators available from 319. There were also 446 alternative ventilators.

Around the world late Saturday afternoon, there were 126.4 million known cases of COVID-19 and more than 2.77 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 30.2 million cases and 548,765 deaths.

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