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Maine Reports 1 More Death, 8 New Cases Of Coronavirus

Robert F. Bukaty
/
Associated Press
Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah provides a briefing on the coronavirus March 12, 2020.

Maine has confirmed 875 cases of COVID-19 as of Monday,according to the Maine Center for Disease Control. One more person has died from the disease, for a total of 35 deaths, and 414 people have recovered.

Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said the most recent individual to die was a woman in her 70's from Waldo County, where 43 cases and a total of eight deaths have occurred.

 

At a Monday afternoon briefing, Shah said 188 of Maine's cases and several of the deaths have occurred among residents and staff at long-term care facilities. The disease has now been found in all 16 Maine counties, including Piscataquis County, where one case has turned up.

While the 8 new confirmed cases represented the smallest daily bump in weeks, Shah says it’s still important to practice physical distancing.

“There have been a lot of changes with respect to the way the complexion of the outbreak across the state of Maine, across the country looks. And the bottom line here folks is we’re still in the middle of things,” he says.

 

Shah said of the 414 Mainers who have recovered from COVID-19, 62 have done so just since Friday. He said 39 people with the coronavirus are currently hospitalized, 16 of them in intensive care.  Nine people are on ventilators, he said.

 

Most of the confirmed cases of the coronavirus are in people in their 50s, followed by those in their 60s and 70s.

 

Shah said decisions about when to open Maine's economy must be weighed against the risk of setting off a new outbreak. "We're right in the middle of this," he said, and urged people to continue practicing social distancing and other state and federal guidelines.

 

 

Originally published April 20, 2020 at 11:51 a.m. ET.