Sunday’s case count breaks a 4-day streak of new cases over 300, but the seven-day average is still 314.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported 218 more cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths, a slight dip in the recent surge of case numbers, but not enough to move high weekly averages. Maine’s vaccination effort and a spike in infections, in large part among young people, have both ramped up in recent weeks. The state’s vaccination capabilities recently expanded enough to bring doses to homebound Mainers and to open eligibility to all residents over 16. But meanwhile, on Sunday,94 of 218 new cases were in people under 30 — 43 percent of the daily total. Maine’s cumulative COVID-19 cases rose to 53,960 on Sunday. Of those,40,916 have been confirmed by testing and 13,044 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of new daily cases fell slightly to 314 on Sunday, below Saturday’s recent high of 333.8. Seven hundred fifty people have died with COVID-19 since the pandemic began in Maine. Many Mainers with medical conditions that leave them homebound are as vulnerable to COVID-19 as long-term care residents who were among the first to be vaccinated. Yet, thanks to limited supplies and the logistical difficulties of organizing home visits for vaccinations, health care providers are just now reaching the homebound population. As of Friday, about 82 percent of Mainers 70 and older had received at least one dose. But vaccination rates have slowed among that population as providers grapple with bringing shots to older Mainers who are harder to reach.
