PORTLAND, Maine (AP & WGAN) The surge of COVID-19 is continuing in Maine, with another 665 infections and three deaths reported by the Maine Center for Disease Control on Friday.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine has risen over the past two weeks from 164 new cases per day on Aug. 18 to 316 new cases per day on Sept. 1.
Hospitals that are treating the most COVID-19 patients since February are urging Mainers to get vaccinated.
Nurse Shannon Calvert has been working at Maine Medical Center for 24 years and said this virus is unlike anything she has seen before.
“We’ve had teenagers, we’ve had 20-year-olds, we have a lot of 40-year-olds and they have kids,” Calvert said. “It’s heartbreaking because it isn’t uncommon for someone to make it into the ICU and not make it out.”
The common thread is that virtually all of the patients in the intensive care unit are unvaccinated, she said.
As of Friday morning, Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said 163 people were in Maine hospitals with COVID-19. 62 were in ICUs, leaving 51 ICU beds available in the state.
A week ago, there were 71 COVID-19 patients in critical care. That number was 43 two weeks ago.
All told, 848,862 Maine people, or 63.15% of the state’s 1.3 million people, have received their final dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
