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Masks Now Recommended For All Mainers In Kennebec, Somerset And Waldo Counties

Joanne MacIsaac and Ron Delucia, of Medford, Mass., share an umbrella, Friday, July 9, 2021, as the remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa arrive in Portland, Maine.
Robert F. Bukaty
/
AP
Joanne MacIsaac and Ron Delucia, of Medford, Mass., share an umbrella, Friday, July 9, 2021, as the remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa arrive in Portland, Maine.

Mainers should now wear masks when they are in Kennebec, Somerset and Waldo counties, according to new guidance from the Maine CDC.

Kennebec County was the latest county on Saturday to meet the threshold where the state recommends all people, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors. That county currently has 50.1 cases per 100,000, up from 49.28 on Friday.

Those recommendations were already in place in Somerset and Waldo counties, where data show active coronavirus cases were at 55.42 and 111.28 per 100,000 people. The mask-wearing recommendation has been dropped in Hancock County, because cases have dipped below the 50 per 100,000, down 49.45.

On Saturday, the Maine CDC reported another 91 coronavirus cases. A man in his 50s from Waldo County is the latest Mainer to die from the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 900.

That weekly average of coronavirus cases in Maine reached 80 on Saturday, the highest since early June. That's up from 77 on Friday, 61 a week ago, and 24 a month ago.

The Maine CDC reports that just over 60% of the state has now been vaccinated against COVID-19.