Category: Corona Virus

The estimate is based on the number of infections "that have already occurred," Dr. Tom Frieden said Saturday, during CNN's "Coronavirus: Facts and Fears" town hall.

"Anytime we ignore, minimize or underestimate this virus, we do so at our peril and the peril of people whose lives depend on us," Frieden said.

By February, the coronavirus death toll in the US could double to about 400,000, a model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine projected. Daily deaths will peak at about 2,300 in mid-January, the model predicted.

Projections aren't set in stone, however, and what the public does can have a big impact, another former CDC director, Dr. Richard Besser, said.

New Covid-19 cases continue to grow across the country, though. Florida health officials reported 5,570 new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday after there was no case or death update on Saturday, according to the Florida Department of Health.

There were also 178 Floridian deaths reported on Sunday, bring that total to 15,364, according to the data.

In Montana, it took almost five months from the beginning of the pandemic for the state to reach 5,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. But in just the past 11 days the state has reported a further 5,000 cases as the virus continues to spread throughout the country.

Impacts could be much greater than officials think

Officials are tracking coronavirus infections and deaths, but Frieden said those numbers may be too small.

The true number of coronavirus deaths in the United States is well over a quarter million, Frieden said Saturday.

Part of the problem in determining the true impact is how deaths are listed on death certificates, especially for older patients who are more likely to have other health problems along with a coronavirus infection. Often the other health condition is listed as the cause of death, he said.

"If you die from cancer, and you also have diabetes, you still died from cancer," Frieden explained. "If you died from Covid, and you also had diabetes, you died from Covid."

The number of infections is likely closer to 40 million people, he said.

"You may not get sick at all from this, but you may spread it to someone who then dies, or spreads it to someone else who dies," he said. "That's why we all have to recognize that we're in this together. There's only one enemy, and that's the virus."

Regaining trust in vaccines and health agencies

While researchers are racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine, health experts said Saturday that improving trust and accessibility around any potential vaccine is essential.

"For a vaccine to actually work, it's got to not only be safe and effective, but also be accessible and trusted. And that's why it's so important that it not get politicized and not be seen as from any political party or political figure," Frieden said. "It's a big job to get vaccines out there."

Opinion polls show that the public doesn't trust the CDC with information around coronavirus.

The way to regain trust "depends first and foremost on telling the truth, even when it's hard," Dr. Julie Gerberding said in the townhall.

"Americans can tolerate really tough truths, but it has to come from reliable and credible sources," Gerberding said. "One of the reasons that we have so much anxiety among Americans is because they're hearing different things from different political leaders. We haven't consolidated and cascaded the messages from reliable sources."

She reiterated what the other former CDC leaders said during the town hall: Transparency is key.

"It is going to be very difficult to crawl back into a situation where people believe that we really do have their best interest at heart. The good news is that science is on our side," she said.

A wake-up call for politicians and public health officials

Former CDC directors warned that both politicians and public health officials need to take the virus seriously for the sake of the public.

President Donald Trump said that Americans shouldn't let fear of coronavirus dominate their lives, but former director Dr. Jeffrey Koplan said the country should "absolutely" be afraid.

"When your leadership is working against you in this virus, the virus has an ally that makes it a pretty strong contender for further destruction," Koplan said.

Koplan said he believes this pandemic will serve as a wake-up call for politicians and public health officials.

"I would very much hope that we see stronger state and local health departments, working with a stronger CDC -- that there is particularly more attention paid to an up-to-date surveillance system, early detection of problems, and then approaches towards ameliorating them," he said.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the number of daily deaths predicted by a model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Daily deaths will peak at about 2,300 in mid-January, the model predicts.

CNN's Lauren Mascarenhas, Andrea Kane, Leanna Faulk, Shelby Lin Erdman, Nicole Chavez and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.

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The US should expect 20,000 more coronavirus deaths by the end of the month, former CDC director says - CNN

The Oregon Health Authority reported 321 new known cases of COVID-19 and six new deaths Tuesday, bringing the statewide death toll to 605.

Today we surpassed 600 reported COVID-19 deaths, marking an unhappy milestone for all Oregonians," said the agencys director, Pat Allen, in a news release. At OHA we note each COVID-19 related death with great sadness. Our thoughts go out to the families and loved ones of those we have lost.

Officials have been watching anxiously and pleading with Oregonians to wear masks, maintain physical distance from others outside their households and avoid large social gatherings indoors to slow the novel coronavirus' spread. Flu season and much colder, wetter months when people spend more time indoors are approaching. The virus is expected to spread more easily.

Oregon is one of more than 30 states that has reported an increase in new cases in the past week compared to the previous week. Nationwide, in the past two weeks new infections are up 19% and deaths down 5%, according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, in Oregon new infections during that same time period are up 21% and deaths 53%.

New daily cases in Oregon over the past week have surpassed the all-time highs reached in late July.

Deaths, however, are still far below the records reached in August when Oregon recorded at least 138 coronavirus-related deaths.

Doctors say deaths typically come weeks after new cases because it can take that long for the disease in the most severe cases to progress to the point that it kills.

Where the new cases are by county: Benton (10), Clackamas (37), Clatsop (5), Columbia (1), Crook (1), Curry (4), Deschutes (2), Douglas (1), Jackson (13), Jefferson (1), Josephine (3), Klamath (5), Lake (1), Lane (39), Lincoln (5), Linn (20), Malheur (14), Marion (35), Multnomah (45), Polk (3), Tillamook (1), Umatilla (11), Union (2), Wasco (1), Washington (50) and Yamhill (11).

New fatalities: The state released the following details about the six deaths announced Tuesday:

An 83-year-old Yamhill County man who tested positive Sept. 21 died Oct. 5 in his home. Officials are investigating whether he had underlying medical conditions.

An 89-year-old Multnomah County man who had underlying conditions tested positive Sept. 30 died Monday at Adventist Health Portland.

A 75-year-old Marion County woman who had underlying conditions tested positive Oct. 1 and died Friday at her home.

A 90-year-old Clackamas County man who had underlying conditions tested positive Saturday and died Sunday. Officials didnt say yet whether he died at a hospital, his home or elsewhere.

A 91-year-old Malheur County man with underlying conditions tested positive Sept. 7 and died Sept. 18 at his home.

An 81-year-old Multnomah County woman with underlying conditions tested positive Oct. 1 and died Saturday at Providence Portland Medical Center.

Prevalence of new infections: The state reported 321 new infections, but 297 came in the form of positive tests while the rest where presumed cases. Of the 6,006 people tested, 297 people equates to a 4.9% positivity rate. The rolling seven-day average was 6.1%.

Who got infected: New confirmed or presumed infections grew Tuesday among these age groups: 0-9 (18); 10-19 (34); 20-29 (59); 30-39 (61); 40-49 (46); 50-59 (47); 60-69 (24); 70-79 (13); 80 and older (13).

Whos in the hospital: The state Tuesday reported 156 people hospitalized in Oregon for confirmed cases of COVID-19. Thats up by two from Monday. The state still has hundreds of available beds and ventilators.

Since it began: There have been 605 deaths and 37,780 people whove tested positive or been presumed to have the disease. So far, 749,375 tests have been conducted.

Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter

-- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee

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321 new cases and 6 deaths reported as Oregons coronavirus death toll tops 600 - OregonLive

Blitzer: Even members of your own caucus, Madam Speaker, want to accept this deal, $1.8 trillion, Congressman Ro Khanna for example. But let met just quote Ro Khanna, a man you know well. I assume you admire him. He's a Democrat.

And he just said this. He said "People in need can't wait until February, $1.8 trillion is significant and more than twice the Obama stimulus. Make a deal, put the ball in McConnell court."

Pelosi: What I say to you is, I don't know why you're always an apologist. And many of your colleagues, apologists for the Republican position. Ro Khanna, that's nice. That isn't what we're going to do and nobody's waiting till February.

It went downhill from there. Asked if she had spoken to President Donald Trump about the possibility of a coronavirus stimulus deal, Pelosi said she doesn't "speak to the President." Pressed on why not -- given the suffering of people in desperate need of a stimulus deal to keep their business open or pay their bills -- Pelosi responded this way: "What makes me amused if it weren't so sad, is how you all think that you know more about the suffering of the American people than those of us who are elected by them to represent them at that table."

Uh, OK.

Pelosi wasn't done. "Let me say this with all due respect, with all due respect, and you know we've known each other a long time, you really don't know what you're talking about," she said as Blitzer continued to ask why the $1.8 trillion deal proposed by the White House wasn't good enough.

And she ended the interview with snark -- telling Blitzer ,"Thank you for sensitivity to our constituents' needs" and then when he responded that he was aware of their needs because 'I see them on the street begging for food, begging for money," the Speaker of the House said this: "Have you fed them? We feed them, we feed them."

On the whole, it was a decidedly embarrassing performance by the Speaker of the House. And I'll note here that I believe Pelosi to be the best congressional strategist of her generation -- bar none.

But this was a disaster.

Pelosi's position in the interview appeared to be that Blitzer wasn't allowed to ask her any questions about her unwillingness to accept the White House's latest stimulus deal because, uh, he wasn't the one negotiating it? And that by asking basic questions -- like why she continues to hold out for what she believes to be a better deal and whether she has spoken with Trump -- that Blitzer was an "apologist" for Republicans. Say what?

What about the prominent Democrats Blitzer cited who have been pushing -- publicly and privately -- Pelosi to make a deal? Well, according to Pelosi they don't matter either because they aren't the ones negotiating it. (Sidebar: I am sure Pelosi's California colleague -- Ro Khanna -- appreciated her condescending "that's nice" comment about his support for a deal.)

But the point is this: If you are the Speaker of the House and agree to an interview in the midst of a contentious debate over a coronavirus stimulus package three weeks before a presidential election, you can't act surprised -- or outraged -- when you get asked about the coronavirus stimulus package and whether or not you've spoken to the President of the United States about it.

Those are not Republican apologist questions. They are fair ones. And ones that Pelosi should have been prepared to answer rather than snark at Blitzer and act as though he was doing something untoward.

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Nancy Pelosi's ridiculously over-the-top response to questions about the coronavirus stimulus - CNN

Flight crew members walk past thermal cameras that check passengers' body temperatures at Los Angeles International Airport on June 23. As businesses look to reopen, technology firms are offering an array of monitoring systems to try to control the coronavirus. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Flight crew members walk past thermal cameras that check passengers' body temperatures at Los Angeles International Airport on June 23. As businesses look to reopen, technology firms are offering an array of monitoring systems to try to control the coronavirus.

In March, Dr. Achintya Moulick found himself at the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic.

He oversees three CarePoint Health hospitals in northern New Jersey and in the early days of the pandemic, they were swamped. "We had no idea what this infection was all about," he says.

One of the first challenges was screening patients for COVID-19 even before they entered the hospital.

"One day I saw a big line outside the entrance of the hospital," he says. "And they were manually checking everybody's temperature."

Moulick thought this was illogical. "The lines were all the way out to the garage," he says.

The process was diverting his front-line staff, burning through precious personal protective equipment and creating a bottleneck of potentially infectious patients outside his door.

So he hired a company that uses thermal scanners to take the temperature of up to 20 people at a time as they approach the front entrance.

The scanners allowed patients to flow more smoothly into the building, but the system also could alert nursing staff automatically if a patient needed immediate attention.

The thermal scanners are made by a company called Zyter. The readings can be used simply to let people in the door or for the company to keep a continuous record of employees' temperatures.

Zyter is just one of dozens of companies offering systems to help employers confront the new challenges of COVID-19.

As more and more businesses look to reopen, technology firms have an array of monitoring systems to try to keep the coronavirus out of office buildings, medical facilities and industrial plants.

This sector could be a multibillion-dollar business in the coming year, analysts say.

Some of the system are as simple as an app for employees to report any COVID-19 symptoms. Others use Bluetooth devices connected to company ID badges to make sure workers are staying at least 6 feet apart.

If someone comes down with COVID-19, the company has a record of exactly who that person had contact with, for how long, and even when exactly their temperature started to rise.

"All of that data can be tracked through a cloud-based portal on an ongoing basis," says Harish Pai, the chief technology officer at Zyter.

"So you have a complete snapshot of your organization across facilities, across locations, and what is your risk of exposure," he says.

Zyter has even more sophisticated monitoring systems that don't require any tracking devices on workers. One such system uses facial recognition linked to a network of digital cameras.

"It can track a person all through the facility and be able to identify that person," Pai says. So any potential coronavirus exposure can be identified. Rather than shutting down an entire unit of a factory if one worker gets sick, the system can identify who actually was close to the person who tested positive. Those employees can be quarantined and tested. The rest of the unit can keep working.

These COVID-19 monitoring systems raise obvious privacy concerns. Some employees will find it creepy if their every movement and even their body temperature is being tracked by their boss. Should human resources know exactly how long you spent in the bathroom?

But in the midst of the pandemic, a company may want to know if too many people are congregating in a break room or if certain units are regularly violating social distancing rules.

Employees give up many rights to privacy when they arrive at work, and courts have ruled that private companies have broad rights to monitor what happens on their premises.

Amazon is using a camera-based AI system it calls "distance assistant" to keep people spaced out in its warehouses.

Pai from Zyter says industrial plants where work from home isn't possible are some of his company's biggest customers.

"For example, we are deploying the entire contact tracing, the service and the cameras-based solution for a large manufacturing customer out of Malaysia as we speak," he says.

Some companies are adopting the bare minimum, doing just enough so the health department allows them to operate. Others like the manufacturing plant in Malaysia are monitoring every interaction at their workplace.

Kristin Baker Spohn, a partner with the tech venture capital firm CRV, says employers need to be very clear about the purpose of the new technologies they're using.

"If that purpose is the collective health of your company population, I think that's something that we'll see a lot of people be excited and eager to adapt to," she says. "But how you frame and how you protect that information is paramount to making sure that there is adoption and success."

And until there's a vaccine, the successful monitoring and suppression of the virus will be key to whether businesses can stay open.

Continued here:

More Companies Are Using Technology To Monitor For Coronavirus In The Workplace - NPR

Its still not clear how many people have tested positive for COVID-19 following an Anchorage youth hockey tournament in early October that led to what officials described as a cluster of infections.

But the Termination Dust Invitational is already having far-reaching consequences due to public health recommendations that attendees go into a 14-day quarantine to make sure they dont spread the virus thats surging in Anchorage and other communities through pathways including social gatherings and sports.

If followed, that recommendation could add up to one of the states largest quarantines since summer outbreaks in the seafood industry confined hundreds of workers to remote plants or hotel rooms in Anchorage.

Over three days between Oct. 2 and Oct. 4, more than 300 people students, coaches, staff, family members from Anchorage, Eagle River, Chugiak, Wasilla, Palmer, Kenai, Soldotna, Fairbanks and Juneau attended the event at the Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson arenas in Anchorage.

The president of the Anchorage Hockey Association, which held the tournament, didnt respond to a request for comment Monday. The organization maintains it followed all the proper protocols, though social distancing was difficult to enforce.

The Anchorage Health Department on Friday issued a warning: anyone testing positive for the virus should isolate away from family members for 10 days.

A department spokesman on Monday said a specific count on the number of confirmed positives in people attending the tournament wasnt available.

More broadly, however, the municipality recommended anyone else who attended should quarantine for two weeks.

That means no school until next Monday for school districts with students or staff who participated in the tournament if they follow the quarantine recommendations.

Mat-Su, which considers itself one of the largest school districts on the West Coast to offer in-person learning, sent out a letter Sunday warning students and teachers to quarantine if they attended so schools can remain open.

District officials on Monday couldnt say exactly how many, but some staff and students at multiple schools have voluntarily self-isolated.

The district had building closures last week that were directly connected to people attending the tournament, according to district spokeswoman Jillian Morrissey. Colony High School near Palmer closed briefly last week.

A Fairbanks district spokesperson didnt respond to a request for comment about tournament-related quarantines.

Catholic Schools of Fairbanks had several players from different teams who played in the tournament, according to safety liaison Lorna Illingworth. They will return to school next Monday. No staff members were involved.

A Juneau team participated that included high school players, according to Kristin Bartlett, spokeswoman for the Juneau School District. It appears that only a small number of students were involved. The Juneau Douglas Ice Association temporarily suspended activities last weekend.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday there was no hockey in Juneau, Bartlett said, adding the association is working with public-health officials on a reopening schedule. We do have a pretty tight hockey community here in Juneau. Even though it was just one team that traveled, the coaches, staff and players do have family members. A lot play hockey."

Statewide, the Alaska State Activities Association has decided to delay the start of high school hockey until Oct. 26. The season was supposed to start Wednesday.

The recommendation is rippling across not only sports and schools but jobs for adults who attended or participated, officials say.

School officials on the Kenai Peninsula received some pushback after posting a statement Friday on social media that anyone who participated in the tournament would need to quarantine.

District spokeswoman Pegge Erkeneff described the response as people asking, How come youre making this rash decision?"

Part of the communication I gave back was this isnt a decision the district is making," Erkeneff said Monday. "Were following the guidelines from public health. That helped a little bit.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is assisting with contact tracing. A department spokesman referred any questions about the quarantine recommendation to the Anchorage Health Department.

The health department provided no additional information Monday.

The tournament cluster is rippling into teams already struggling with numerous COVID-19 delays including one in Homer where the entire football program is in quarantine after two coaches tested positive, according to Erkeneff.

Eagle River High Schools football season ended Friday following a party Oct. 3 that resulted in positive cases. The district also stood down all sports programs at the high school through the weekend. On Monday, a letter that went out to Eagle River families announced riflery and swim/dive teams were to remain suspended pending further test results.

Allowed to return: C team football; flag football; debate, drama and forensics; bowling; and gymnastics.

The Anchorage School District last week reported that 14 teams were undergoing 14-day quarantine periods due to potential virus exposure from a teammate or coach. The district also issued a two-week stop to high school volleyball after multiple teams at a handful of schools reported COVID-19 illness, related symptoms or exposure.

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Hundreds of potential coronavirus quarantines around Alaska in the wake of youth hockey tournament - Anchorage Daily News

SPINCO, in Hamilton, Ontario, just reopened in July and had all of the right protocols in place, including screening of staff and attendees, tracking all those in attendance at each class, masking before and after classes, laundering towels and cleaning the rooms within 30 minutes of a complete class, said Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, Hamilton's medical officer of health, in a statement.

Public health officials are very concerned about the number of cases and the size of the outbreak, especially because the city is not currently a hotspot and the facility was not ignoring health protocols, they said in a statement to CNN.

"They have also supported public health services in our investigation by sharing the messaging with all their members," said Richardson.

There are currently 44 confirmed positive primary cases associated with SPINCO and 17 confirmed secondary cases. Exposure was linked to several classes held from September 28 to October 4.

The studio's co-owners, Naz Zarezadegan and Ira Price, told The Hamilton Spectator on Monday that public health officials told them "patient zero displayed no symptoms."

SPINCO said it will stay closed pending further investigation by health officials.

City officials say SPINCO was operating at 50% capacity, with a 6-foot radius around each bike, and that this might raise questions about the safety of gyms and fitness studios during the pandemic.

"We continue to look at what does it mean, what do we need to understand about exercises classes," Richardson said in a media briefing Tuesday.

Canada is reckoning with a second wave of the coronavirus which has been marked by a doubling of new, daily positive cases of Covid-19 within the past month. Targeted restrictions and closures are in place in many urban centers including Toronto and Montreal, but not in Hamilton.

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One client in one spin studio that followed all the rules triggers a coronavirus outbreak with at least 61 cases - CNN

Between Oct. 6 and 13, there were 63 new coronavirus cases connected to an outbreak on UW's Greek Row.

SEATTLE A COVID-19 outbreak involving students at the University of Washington's fraternities and sororities continues to grow with 242 positive cases as of Tuesday afternoon.

The cases were spread among 17 sororities and fraternities in the 45-chapter system, which is north of the university campus in Seattle, according to the university.

The numbers are up from 179 cases as of Tuesday last week, and 227 cases on Friday.

Students who have tested positive or have COVID-like symptoms are being told to isolate themselves, according to the university.

The university has given over 2,600 coronavirus tests in the last seven days, with a positivity rate of 1.6%.

At a press conference last week, Gov. Jay Inslee expressed frustration about the behavior on Greek Row that is exposing all of us to great risk.

As of Tuesday, a total of 619 UW students, faculty and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 since February, according to the university coronavirus case tracker.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated that there were 619 cases connected to the outbreak at the University of Washington.

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University of Washington coronavirus outbreak reaches 242 positive cases - KING5.com

Editors note: The Salt Lake Tribune is providing free access to critical stories about the coronavirus. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every weekday morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber.

If youre waiting for the COVID-19 pandemic to subside across the state of Utah, last week was a reminder that its unlikely to happen any time soon.

The Department of Health on Sunday reported 1,200 new cases and seven new deaths statewide. For the seven-day period beginning Oct. 5 and ending Sunday, Utah reported 8,226 cases and 40 deaths. Those figures over that seven-day period account for 9.6% of all cases in Utah and 7.7% of all deaths since the pandemic began in March.

Sundays seven new deaths include:

A Cache County man, age 65 to 84, who lived in a long-term care facility.

A Salt Lake County man, age 65 to 84, who was hospitalized at the time of death.

A Tooele County man, age 65 to 84, who was hospitalized at the time of death.

A Davis County man, older than 85, who lived in a long-term care facility.

A Salt Lake County man, age 65 to 84, who was hospitalized at the time of death.

A Washington County man, age 45 to 64, who was hospitalized at the time of death.

A Salt Lake County man, age 65 to 84, who was hospitalized at the time of death.

Positive COVID-19 cases continue to spike. Six of the past seven days have seen 1,007 or more positive cases, including Thursdays single-day state record of 1,501. Things didnt slow down as the weekend hit, with 1,343 on Friday and 1,354 on Saturday before Sundays 1,200.

The total number of positive cases since the pandemic began eclipsed 85,000 on Sunday. The total now sits at 85,844 as the state is on pace to hit 100,000 total cases well ahead of Halloween.

Furthermore, according to COVID Act Now, Utahs 13.9% positive percentage ranks among the 10 worst when compared to the rest of the 50 states. For what its worth, neighboring Idaho (22.3%), Wyoming (15.5%) and Nevada (14.9%) all have worse positive-percentages currently.

As with positive cases, statewide hospitalizations remain high. Friday marked a single-day high of 243 current hospitalizations. That dropped to 231 on Saturday but shot back up on Sunday as the Department of Health reported 254 current hospitalizations. There have been 4,306 total hospitalizations since the pandemic began.

The state reported Sunday an increase of 5,677 people tested, bringing the statewide total to 918,571. Sundays total was down from Saturdays single-day record of 11,846.

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Coronavirus in Utah: Sunday's 1200 new cases, seven new deaths cap another bad week for the pandemic - Salt Lake Tribune

Another 31 coronavirus cases have been reported in Maine, health officials said Sunday.

Sundays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 5,723. Of those, 5,128 have been confirmed positive, while 595 were classified as probable cases, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency revised Saturdays cumulative total to 5,692, down from 5,696, meaning there was an increase of 31 over the previous days report, state data show. As the Maine CDC continues to investigate previously reported cases, some are determined to have not been the coronavirus, or coronavirus cases not involving Mainers. Those are removed from the states cumulative total.

New cases were reported in Cumberland (3), Androscoggin (8), York (6), Franklin (2), Oxford (1), Sagadahoc (7), Penobscot (1) and Somerset (4) counties, state data show.

The seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 34.3, up from 33.4 a week ago and up from 22.6 a month ago.

No new deaths were reported Sunday, leaving the statewide death toll at 143. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

So far, 463 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Information about those currently hospitalized wasnt immediately available.

Meanwhile, nine more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total recoveries to 4,970. That means there are 610 active confirmed and probable cases in the state, which is up from 602 on Saturday.

A majority of the cases 3,318 have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.

As of Friday, there had been 493,158 negative test results out of 501,020 overall. About 1.5 percent of all tests have come back positive, the most recently available Maine CDC data show.

The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 2,386 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths 70 have been concentrated. It is one of four counties the others are Androscoggin, Penobscot and York, with 807, 269 and 1,275 cases, respectively where community transmission has been confirmed, according to the Maine CDC.

There are two criteria for establishing community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are not connected to either known cases or travel. That second condition has not yet been satisfied in other counties.

Other cases have been reported in Aroostook (52), Franklin (69), Hancock (55), Kennebec (258), Knox (51), Lincoln (50), Oxford (155), Piscataquis (10), Sagadahoc (72), Somerset (112), Waldo (79) and Washington (20) counties. Information about the location of three other cases was not available on Sunday morning.

As of Sunday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 7,719,600 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 214,379 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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31 new cases of coronavirus reported in Maine - Bangor Daily News

There were 44,614 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Sunday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The latest daily tally is down by more than 10,000 from the previous day and falls well under the countrys record set on July 16, when there were 77,255 new cases in a 24-hour-reporting period.

An additional 400 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded Sunday, down from a peak of 2,666 new fatalities reported on April 17.

A banner offering free COVID-19 testing is seen at a testing station at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 9, 2020.

A total of 7,762,809 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 214,771 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.

By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country's cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 70,000 for the first time in mid-July. The daily tally of new cases has gradually come down since then but has started to climb again in recent weeks.

Week-over-week comparisons show the number of new cases reported across the nation continues to go up, as does the usage of intensive care units, but the number of new deaths are down, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News last week.

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Coronavirus live updates: Mexico confirms 1st case of someone with both COVID-19 and influenza - ABC News