Maine CDC reports 35 new cases of coronavirus, no more deaths

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday reported 35 cases of the novel coronavirus and no additional deaths, ending a week that saw its third death and well over 100 cases linked to a crowded wedding reception in Millinocket.

Maine’s cumulative cases rose to 4,667. Of those, 4,197 have been confirmed by testing and 470 are considered probable cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

One hundred thirty-four people have died with COVID-19 in Maine.

Subtracting the number of people who have recovered – 4,037 – and died, there were 496 active cases on Saturday.

The Maine CDC on Friday reported that a third person had died with COVID-19 contracted directly or indirectly from guests at the Aug. 7 wedding reception in Millinocket. The reception now has been linked to 147 cases around the state, including several dozen at the York County Jail.

State officials have not provided specifics about how the three people who died are believed to have been infected.

Health authorities are still investigating whether 10 cases at Calvary Baptist Church in Sanford are linked to the wedding or the wedding reception. The pastor at Calvary Baptist, Todd Bell, officiated the East Millinocket wedding and has remained defiant of health regulations limiting gatherings and mandating masks.

Meanwhile, state officials moved York County’s school reopening designation to “yellow” from “green” last week, indicating that the county may not be safe for in-person learning as once thought.

York County has seen five outbreaks in recent weeks – including at the Sanford church and the York County Jail – along with an increase in cases per capita and a testing positivity rate three times the state average.

Sanford Superintendent Matt Nelson on Friday announced he was pushing the district’s reopening date back to Sept. 14 in light of outbreaks in the city. Before his action, high school students and students at the Sanford Regional Technical Center were scheduled to begin school Tuesday.

The University of Maine System is reporting 11 cases of COVID-19 across its schools, down three cases from Friday’s total of 14. That’s because three people across the system were released from isolation, effectively ending their cases, the university system said Saturday.

There are now eight active cases at the University of Maine in Orono, three at the University of Southern Maine, and none at the University of Maine at Farmington, where an adjunct faculty member with COVID-19 has been released from isolation.

County by county in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 623 COVID-19 cases in Androscoggin, 39 in Aroostook, 2,216 in Cumberland, 53 in Franklin, 50 in Hancock, 195 in Kennebec, 33 in Knox, 36 in Lincoln, 73 in Oxford, 246 in Penobscot, eight in Piscataquis, 62 in Sagadahoc, 62 in Somerset, 70 in Waldo, 15 in Washington, and 884 in York.

By age, 10.3 percent of patients were under 20, while 17.1 percent were in their 20s, 15.4 percent were in their 30s, 14.5 percent were in their 40s, 16.1 percent were in their 50s, 11.4 percent were in their 60s, 7.7 percent were in their 70s, and 7.5 percent were 80 or over.

Women still make up a slight majority of cases, at just over 51 percent.

Maine’s hospitals had five COVID-19 patients on Saturday, of whom two were in intensive care and two were on ventilators. Maine had 126 intensive care unit beds available of a statewide 392, and 278 ventilators available of 319. The state also had 442 alternative ventilators.

Around the world on Saturday afternoon, there were 26.6 million known cases of COVID-19 and more than 876,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 6.2 million cases and more than 188,000 deaths.