Maine reported 300 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, and most of the state is now classified in the low-risk category for the virus.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its “community levels” on Thursday, showing that there’s low risk for the virus in about 85 percent of counties across the nation. An additional 13 percent have moderate risk and only 2 percent of all counties have high risk.
Among those high-risk counties are two in Maine: Aroostook and Washington, which are color-coded “red.” Other concentrations of high-risk areas in the United States are in eastern Kentucky, western Oklahoma and eastern Montana, but most of the United States is colored green by the federal agency, indicating low-risk for the virus. The U.S. CDC calculates its community level risk factors by combining case counts with hospital capacity and new hospital admissions.
In Maine, Piscataquis, Penobscot and Hancock counties are considered at moderate risk, coded yellow, while the remaining 11 counties, including Cumberland and York, are “green” or low risk.
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, Maine has logged 233,537 cases of COVID-19, and 2,179 deaths. There were no additional deaths in the state on Friday.
COVID-19 hospitalizations stood at 107 on Friday, down from on 111 on Thursday. On Friday, there were 22 patients in critical care and seven on ventilators. Hospitalizations have plummeted 75 percent since a peak of 436 on Jan. 13.
According to new research published Friday by the U.S. CDC, vaccine effectiveness for the Pfizer and Moderna shots, especially for those who received boosters, held up during the delta wave in the fall and the omicron wave this winter.
Vaccine effectiveness pre-delta was 95 percent for those with two doses. During the delta variant surge, which coincided with when booster shots became widely available, vaccine effectiveness was 95 percent for those who were boosted, and 88 percent for those who hadn’t gotten a booster. During the winter omicron wave, boosted patients were 94 percent protected against omicron, while vaccinated but unboosted people were 79 percent protected by the vaccines.
In Maine, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, 74 percent are vaccinated against COVID-19, with 44 percent having received a booster shot.
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