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Maine Reports One More Death, 26 New Cases Of COVID-19 As Businesses Begin Reopening

Robert F. Bukaty
/
Associated Press
Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks at a news conference, Tuesday, April 28, 2020, in Augusta, Maine.

The Maine CDC reported 26 new cases of COVID-19 and another death on Monday, the first day that retail businesses in 12 of Maine's 16 counties can resume limited operations.

Maine health officials say the state has now logged a total of 1,462 confirmed and probable cases of the coronavirus and 65 deaths over the course of the pandemic.

The most recent death was a man in his 70s from Cumberland County, Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said at a briefing Monday in Augusta.

Shah says his agency will closely monitor any changes in COVID-19 outbreaks and make adjustments.

“This is not a one-way ratchet. We’re continuing our analysis of the data because we want to make sure that if a secondary spike were to occur that we’re able to spot it and able to take policy steps accordingly,” he says.

Shah says his agency won’t just track daily spikes of COVID-19 cases, but also moving averages that occur over a period of a week or two, as well as the percentage of positive cases.

He says that if the positive rate goes up with more testing, that’s a bad sign. But he says it will be a good sign if the current rate of about 6 percent is maintained, even with more testing.

Shah said the Maine CDC is investigating three new outbreaks, which include four cases at Residential Community Support Services in Sanford and three at the Granite Bay Care facility in Brunswick.

The third ourbreak involves three cases at the Maple House, a campus for Spurwink, a facility for children that provides behavioral health and education services.

"We're trying to figure out actually if it's a singular, discreet outbreak, or part of an existing outbreak affiliated with some other centers in the area," Shah says.

Nearly 400 of Maine's cases have occurred among residents and staff at long-term care facilities and in congregate care settings, such as the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Portland, Shah said. Health care workers account for 326 cases.

No new cases have turned up at the Tyson Foods, Shah said, where the total number of cases diagnosed remains at 51.

A total of 872 people have recovered from the illness, 11 more since Sunday, and 200 people have been hospitalized, Shah said. Thirty-seven are currently hospitalized, 17 of them in intensive care. Of those, 9 are on ventilators.

Maine Public digital producer Barbara Cariddi contributed to this report.

Updated May 11, 2020 at 4:27 p.m. ET.

Originally published May 11, 2020 at 12:04 p.m. ET.

Journalist Steve Mistler is Maine Public’s chief politics and government correspondent. He is based at the State House.