The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday reported 444 cases of the new coronavirus and 30 new deaths, ending a week in which Maine recorded days with new cases above 800, as well as delays in vaccination by the federal government.
The state’s cumulative cases increased to 33,219. Of these, 27,249 were confirmed by tests and 5,970 are considered probable cases of COVID-19.
Five hundred and seven people have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in Maine. It was not yet clear whether the 30 colossal deaths reported on Saturday occurred recently or may have been attributed to COVID-19. Information on people who died on Saturday was not immediately available by the Maine CDC.
Meanwhile, Maine gave 70,228 people at least the first dose of a vaccine against COVID-19. But states that expected an extra surge in their vaccine supply were disappointed this week when they learned from federal officials that a reserve stock designated to be released by the Trump administration was already empty.
Both vaccines authorized for use in the United States require two doses for full effectiveness, and the administration’s initial policy was to avoid extra injections to ensure that those immunized received both doses. But Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine program, stopped stocking those doses late last year.
Some states have made plans to expand the vaccine’s eligibility because of an anticipated increase in doses from the release of that stock. These plans will now have to be reduced, as the government removes doses of the vaccine directly from the production line to send to the states.
In Maine, Governor Janet Mills recently raised the vaccine’s priority to people aged 70 and over, as well as those with high-risk health conditions. Now, state officials say they do not know whether vaccine production will accompany their plans.
State medical networks, which include large hospitals like the Maine Medical Center, are also making plans for large-scale vaccination clinics in the event that large vaccine supplies become available for general distribution to the public. MaineHealth, the father of Maine Med, has already vaccinated 22,000 health professionals and is preparing to establish clinics outside its health practices across the state.
Meanwhile, the virus is increasing among the unimmunized population. Maine reported 823 new cases on Friday, and on Saturday the seven-day average of new cases daily reached 602.
County by county in Maine since the pandemic began, there were 3,563 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 1,011 in Aroostook, 9,735 in Cumberland, 561 in Franklin, 680 in Hancock, 2,535 in Kennebec, 479 in Knox, 393 in Lincoln, 1,549 in Oxford , 2,535 in Penobscot, 162 in Piscataquis, 613 in Sagadahoc, 938 in Somerset, 428 in Waldo, 492 in Washington and 7,222 in York.
By age, 14.3% of patients were under 20 years old, while 17.9% were 20 years old, 14.5% were 30 years old, 13.1% were 40 years old, 15.5% were 50 years old, 11, 9% were 60 years old, 6.9% were in their 70s and 6.1% were 80 or older.
Updated hospital capacity figures were not yet available on Saturday morning. One hundred and ninety-three patients with COVID-19 were in Maine hospitals on Thursday, the last day for which data were available. Of these 193 patients, 63 were in intensive care and 23 on ventilators. The state had 88 intensive care unit beds available out of a total of 386 and 228 ventilators available out of 320. There were also 443 alternative ventilators.
Worldwide, on Saturday, there were 93.9 million known cases of COVID-19 and more than 2 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 23.5 million cases and 392,000 deaths.
This story will be updated.
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