The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 36 new cases of COVID-19 and one death on Tuesday.
Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah says a woman in her 70s from York County is the latest victim of COVID-19.
The total number of cases reported as of Tuesday was 734. 422 of those cases were still active, as 20 people have died and 292 have recovered.
37 people are currently in regular hospital beds due to COVID-19 in Maine. 21 are in intensive care and 9 are on ventilators. The total number of people who have been hospitalized at some point is 124.
Maine’s CDC is keeping close tabs on outbreaks at three long-term care facilities in the state. As of Tuesday, Dr. Shah said 24 cases have been reported at the Tall Pines Facility in Belfast. 38 cases were confirmed at at the Maine Veterans Home and 63 at the Augusta Rehab Center.
Speaking on Tuesday, Governor Janet Mills said she’s extending the state of civil emergency to run through May 15th. She says that doesn’t necessarily mean that other executive orders, including the stay-at-home order, will also remain in effect until then, but that the extension of the civil emergency gives her the power to extend those orders if needed.
Governor Mills also said she’s in communication with the governors of New Hampshire and Vermont to work on a regionally-focused plan to begin lifting restrictions when it’s deemed safe to do so. Echoing the words of health officials in recent days, she says it would likely be a gradual process, with some businesses and services opening back up before others. As for a target date, the governor didn’t speculate, and said they’re still taking things one day at a time.
With the curve of new coronavirus cases appearing to flatten in many parts of the country, governors warn that their states are still not out of the woods yet. The latest update to a model developed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which has been used to help inform the Trump administration’s “30 Days to Slow The Spread” campaign, which encourages social distancing and other measures to remain in place through at least the end of the month, predicts that healthcare resource use in Maine peaked on Tuesday. But Dr. Shah says the IMHE model is one of several they’re looking at, and that modelling is generally used to anticipate a variety of possible outcomes.
