Originally published April 21, 2020 at 12:04 p.m. ET.
Another Mainer has died of the coronavirus, at the Maine Veteran's Home in Scarborough, as the number of positive diagnoses in the state since the pandemic began rose to 888, another 13 since Monday.That's according to new figures released Tuesday morning by the Maine Center for Disease Control. Of those who have been sickened, 443 have recovered, an increase of 30 since Monday.
A total of 139 people have been hospitalized. Of those, 40 are currently in the hospital, 16 of them in intensive care and 8 of them are on a ventilator.
Six of the 13 new cases turned up in Cumberland County, where a total of 386 cases have been confirmed since the illness was first identified there. York County reported another 2 cases, bringing the total there to 183. The rest of the new cases were scattered across the state.
In his daily briefing on Tuesday, Maine Center for Disease Control Director Dr. Nirav Shah urged Mainers to continue to seek needed medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. He says just as it’s important to keep social connections, its also a time to keep medical connections.
“What we don’t want to do is create a silent, subepidemic of people who need care but dare not come in,” he says.
Shah says there are anecdotal reports in Maine and across the country of people being afraid to seek care for non-COVID-19 issues.
