The Maine CDC is reporting 1,273 new coronavirus cases on Saturday. But as the state works through a backlog of positive test results, state health officials say the daily case count no longer reflects the new infection rate, but rather what the state could process in the previous 24 hours.
The new cases bring the seven-day average to 1,047, which has continued to climb in recent days after dipping to 863 a week ago.
Five more Mainers have died from the disease.
However, the number of people hospitalized with COVID has been steadily falling, with the state is reporting 357 hospitalizations on Friday. That's down from 400 on Thursday. 86 are in critical care and 37 are on ventilators as of Friday.
