Health

214 Mainers Are Hospitalized With COVID-19. That’s The Highest Point During The Pandemic

Maine Public | By Patty Wight

Published September 20, 2021 at 12:16 PM EDT

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FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2020, file photo, a health care worker wears personal protective equipment as she speaks to a patient at a mobile testing location for COVID-19 in Auburn, Maine. Doctors and nurses around the U.S. are becoming exhausted and demoralized as they struggle to cope with a record-breaking surge of COVID-19 patients that is swamping hospitals and prompting governors to clamp back down to contain the virus.

A record 214 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maine — higher than any other point during the pandemic, according to the Maine CDC.

Seventy-three people are in critical care and 33 are on ventilators.

The state's daily count of new COVID-19 cases won't be updated until Tuesday, but the seven-day average has been surging for weeks. It's currently at 486, roughly triple from a month ago.

This is the state's first big surge of coronavirus cases since vaccines have been widely available. It's largely being driven by the highly contagious delta variant, and most of the seriously ill patients are now unvaccinated and from rural areas.