Maine is reporting a significant hike in new coronavirus infections on Wednesday as it goes through a backlog of recent test results.
The state CDC is reporting 287 new cases. That's the highest single day count since May, and about 80 more than were reported in the last daily count.
It brings the seven-day average of new cases to 175. Two additional deaths were also reported.
Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah warned about the upswing on Tuesday. He said the agency is going through about 1,700 COVID test results that have accumulated during the ongoing surge.
On Tuesday, 117 COVID patients were in the hospital — more than double the number from two weeks earlier. Sixty-one were in the ICU, and 25 were on ventilators.
Shah also said that there has been an uptick in COVID-19 outbreaks, with nine of them connected to health care facilities.
Recent samples of positive COVID-19 test results have been almost entirely the result of the delta variant, Shah said.
