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Maine CDC Adds 2 Deaths, 268 COVID-19 Cases On Friday

Nurses Sharon Daley, left, and Maureen Giffen fill syringes with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in a makeshift clinic in the kitchen of a community center, Friday, March 19, 2021, on Great Cranberry Island, Maine.
Robert F. Bukaty
/
AP
Nurses Sharon Daley, left, and Maureen Giffen fill syringes with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in a makeshift clinic in the kitchen of a community center, Friday, March 19, 2021, on Great Cranberry Island, Maine.

Two more Mainers have died with COVID-19. That's according to the Maine CDC, which also reported 268 more cases of the disease on Friday.

In all, over 61,000 cases have been identified in the state and 784 people have died since the start of the pandemic.

Health officials are urging younger Mainers to get vaccinated. At a press conference Thursday, state CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah revealed that only about 20% of eligible people in their 40s and younger are fully vaccinated, compared with two-thirds of people in their 50s and older.

Shah says the recent deaths of two Mainers in their 20s is a reminder that the disease poses a risk to all, regardless of age.

Andrew Catalina is manager of digital news, responsible for editing and producing news content on all of Maine Public's digital platforms, in addition to myriad other news- and content-related roles.