The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maine increased on Sunday, the state reported.
There were 114 patients in hospitals statewide with the virus, 10 more than the day before, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those hospitalized on Sunday, 16 were in critical care units and five on respirators.
Since the pandemic began, 2,412 people have died with COVID-19 in Maine, which included two additional deaths the state reported on Saturday. The Maine CDC does not typically report COVID-19 statistics on Sundays and Mondays.
Experts have said nearly 20 million lives worldwide were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year in use. “‘Catastrophic’ would be the first word that comes to mind” if vaccines hadn’t been available to fight the coronavirus, Oliver Watson of Imperial College London said Thursday.
As of Saturday, the percentage of Mainers fully vaccinated continued to be higher than the national average, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Maine CDC says that 1,001,613 final doses have been administered, meaning that 74.51 percent of Maine’s population has been fully vaccinated. Nationally, 66.9 percent of the eligible population has been fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. CDC.
Earlier this month federal regulators authorized the first COVID-19 shots for infants and preschoolers. The Maine CDC logged 682 children age 4 and younger who had received their first shot as of Saturday.
Meanwhile, 787,413 booster vaccines have been administered in Maine.
Of Cumberland County’s population, 84.95 percent have been fully vaccinated, the only Maine county where the rate is higher than 80 percent. In other counties, the fully vaccinated populations include York, 72.71 percent; Lincoln, 79.19 percent; Androscoggin, 67.15 percent; Kennebec, 68.52 percent, and Aroostook, 68.68 percent.
With the spring surge of COVID-19 infections having eased, none of Maine’s counties has a high risk level of virus transmission. Eight counties have low transmission risk, and the other eight counties are listed as medium, according to the U.S. CDC.
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