Maine is reporting a total of 3,423 cases of COVID-19, eight more since Sunday. The death toll remained at 109.Although no new deaths were reported Monday, four Mainers died over the holiday weekend, bringing the cumulative death toll to 109 on Sunday from 105 on Friday.
At a press briefing Monday, Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said all four people who died over the weekend were residents of Cumberland County, which is where five of the eight new cases reported Moday were diagnosed.
A total of 2,787 infected Mainers have recovered from the virus, an increase of 15 since Sunday. That leaves the number of active cases at 527, down from 534 on Sunday.
Twenty-one Mainers with COVID-19 are currently hospitalized, nine of them in the ICU. Four are on ventilators, Shah said.
Shah said based on COVID-19 tests conducted in Maine Sunday, the state's one-day "positivity rate" is .5%. The rate based on a 7-day weighted average is 1.53%, and its cumulative rate, since the first case showed up in Maine, is 3.6%. Meanwhile, he said, the state has increased testing over the past 2 weeks from 107 tests per 100,000 people to 152 tests, based on a 7-day moving average.
While those numbers are good, Shah said, "They are not a cause for celebration," but rather a snapshot of the transmission that occurred two to three weeks ago, when the state was more locked down.
He said the risk remains of outbreaks in nursing homes, work environments and other places where people congregate. "Even though we are on a good path now, things could change," he said. "Either way, we have a significant amount of work ahead of us."
Included in that work, he said, is dealing with "significant racial disparities" in Maine's cases.
Shah urged Mainers to use face coverings, comparing their use to observing speed limits on roadways, which "reduces our collective risks." He said several studies show that face coverings significantly reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.
"Far from being some obstacle to resuming normal life, they're a mechanism to get ourselves back," he said.
Updated 2:42 p.m. ET July 6, 2020.
