The Maine Center for Disease Control reported a total of 2,103 coronavirus cases on Saturday, an increase of 65 cases compared to the day before.
Two new deaths have been reported since Friday, bringing the total number of deaths related to Covid-19 in Maine to 77. Both deaths were from Cumberland County, a woman in her 80s and a man in the 70s.
The jump in new daily cases this week comes as the state brings new testing materials and equipment that are expected to more than triple the state’s testing capacity, thanks to a new partnership with IDEXX Labs. For that reason, Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah says the steep rise in new cases was anticipated. But he warns that doesn’t mean community transmission isn’t still occurring, and that the state should keep it’s public health vigilance up.
209 of the total number of cases reported to date have been considered probable. The rest have been confirmed through lab testing, according to Maine’s CDC.
40 Mainers who have tested positive for the virus have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,232.
50 Mainers with Covid-19 were in the hospital as of Saturday. 26 were in critical care and 11 were on ventilators. Since the coronavirus hit Maine, 246 people have been hospitalized with the illness.
Despite the sharp rise in new daily cases, Shah says at least one metric shows the state trending in the right direction; the positivity rate, which measures the percentage of coronavirus tests that come back positive out of all tests being done. That’s fallen from just under 6% last week to 5.4% this week.
Increased testing will tend to drive that percentage lower. Shah says a positivity rate around 2% is the goal. For comparison, hard-hit New York state reports a 6.3% positivity rate. Neighboring New Hampshire is at 4.4%, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
The Maine CDC will be updating the number of total tests conducted every Wednesday. The chart below shows all testing that had been done as of Wednesday, May 20th. “PCR” testing reveals whether or not a patient currently has coronavirus. Antibody tests can determine whether or not they’ve already had it and have recovered.
The Maine CDC also released the graphs below, which illustrate the 14-day trend of metrics such as hospitalizations and new cases. That time window is what public health officials are looking at as they make recommendations for when certain businesses and services in the state can begin opening up safely.
The latest information on coronavirus from the Maine CDC can be accessed by clicking here.
