A total of 104 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maine on Saturday, the state reported.

That statistic continues to trend downward. There were 121 people in hospitals statewide on Thursday and again on Friday – compared with 183 a month ago.

Of those hospitalized on Saturday, 16 were in critical care units and four on respirators, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two additional deaths from the virus were recorded Saturday. Since the pandemic began, 2,412 people have died with COVID-19 in Maine.

Maine continues to have among the lowest infection rates of all the states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Friday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. CDC, tweeted that 58 percent of the country’s population live in areas where there is a medium- or high-level risk of COVID-19 transmission.

In Maine, there are no counties with high risk levels of the virus, the according to the U.S. CDC. The federal government issues community virus risk levels of high, medium or low based on the number of hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and new COVID-19 cases in an area.

Eight Maine counties now have low transmission of the virus. They are Cumberland, Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Somerset, Waldo and York.

The remaining eight counties have medium levels of the virus – Androscoggin, Aroostook, Franklin, Hancock, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Washington.

Since the pandemic has began, Maine has logged 268,842 cases of COVID-19. The actual number is higher, since many positive results from at-home tests are not reported, but the official case number does indicate trends.

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