Record 244 new COVID-19 cases reported in Maine and three more deaths – Press Herald

Maine set another daily record with 244 new cases of COVID-19 reported Friday, continuing a disturbing upward trend that shows no sign of slowing down.

Three more people died as well.

It was the fifth consecutive day of at least 100 cases and the 10th time in the last 11 days the state has reached triple digits. The seven-day average daily cases also rose to 171 cases, the highest to date. One month ago, the seven-day average was 30 cases.

There have now been a total of 8,639 confirmed or probable cases and 162 deaths since the pandemic reached Maine back in March. Over the last two weeks, 16 people have died from COVID-19 complications, more than one per day. In the previous two-week period, there were none. Deaths often lag behind case spikes.

The longer Maine sees a sustained high level of new cases each day, the harder it becomes for contact tracers to identify possible contacts who can then quarantine and limit further spread.

Gov. Janet Mills on Friday updated the states color-coding system for schools, moving Androscoggin County into the yellow designation, joining Knox, Franklin, Somerset and Washington counties. Under the yellow designation, schools should take extra precautions, such as limiting the number of people in school buildings at the same time, suspending extracurricular or co-curricular activities or other measures.

The remaning counties remain green, although the state is closely monitoring Cumberland, Hancock, Kennebec and York.

Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Nirav Shah and Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew are scheduled to brief the media at 2 p.m. on Friday.

Hospitalizations also have been rising rapidly. On Friday, there were 13 new hospitalizations reported. The number currently hospitalized was 66, including 18 in critical care, the most since June. This time last month, just eight people were in the hospital.

Maines rate of hospitalization, 4.6 per 100,000 people, still remains well below the national rate of about 13, but state officials are beginning to worry again about bed capacity if things continue to worsen.

Additional cases were reported Friday in every county except Aroostook and Sagadahoc, a sign that community spread has taken hold in many cities and towns across the state even rural areas that had largely been spared from the virus.

Androscoggin County led the way with 68 new cases. Two of the three deaths also were residents of Androscoggin County. Cumberland (40), York (33) and Penobscot (27) also saw high numbers of new cases Friday.

Health officials say the recent increase has been driven more by smaller indoor gatherings where people arent always masked or distanced, rather than the larger gatherings that defined the early days of the pandemic.

New cases also continue to significantly outpace recoveries, which has driven the number of active cases over 2,000 for the first time three times what it was one month ago.

The virus is here, it is all around us and its spreading with ferocity, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah said Thursday during a briefing with reporters.

As cases climb, the states ability to effectively contact trace to help contain the spread is jeopardized. Some states have effectively given up trying to contact trace because the number of new cases coming in is too much to keep up with.

Shah acknowledged Thursday that it has become more challenging but said the CDC has been training people from other departments to assist with contact tracing, bringing the number of staff members up to 135.

We still believe that the strategy of offering widespread testing coupled with case investigation and contact tracing has value, he said.

The states online program, called Sara Alert, has 1,146 currently enrolled, which is a little more than half the number of active cases. The average number of contacts for each confirmed case rose to 5.8 people in October after sitting at about 3.5 from March through September, another sign that people have been increasing the size of their bubbles.

Many states have seen precipitous and even record-breaking rises in cases, hospitalizations and deaths over the last several weeks as the winter months approach and more people move indoors, where the risk of the virus spreading is greater. Despite Maines rapid rise, it stil ranks low in the number of cases per 100,000 people and its test positivity rate of about 2.5 percent is much lower than the national average of 6 percent, a sign that testing capacity here is strong.

On Thursday, the United States set a record for the 7th time in the last nine days with more than 152,000 cases. According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 10.8 million cases and more than 240,000 COVID-19 related deaths in the United States. Both are far and away the most of any country.

This story will be updated.

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Record 244 new COVID-19 cases reported in Maine and three more deaths - Press Herald