Knox County saw 10 additional COVID-19 cases since Saturday, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday, March 8.
The Maine CDC has said deaths and hospitalizations were a better metric to use than case numbers. Two additional hospitalizations of Knox County residents since Saturday were reported by the CDC on Tuesday.
Since the pandemic began in Maine in March 2020, 5,749 Knox County residents have been diagnosed with the virus, 79 have been admitted to hospitals, and 31 have died.
Statewide, an additional 565 cases were reported since Saturday, the lowest increase over a weekend since last summer. There were two additional deaths reported statewide March 8, increasing that number to 2,138.
There were 14 additional people statewide admitted to hospitals in Maine with COVID-19 during the past day, increasing that number at 4,415 since the pandemic began in March 2020.
The CDC reports 142 Mainers currently in the hospital, down from a record high of 436 in early January. Of the 142 hospitalized, 29 are in critical care units and 10 on ventilators. Sixty-nine critical care beds are available in Maine.
Seventy percent of hospitalized patients are people who have not been vaccinated, and 90 percent of people in critical care units are unvaccinated.
Eighty-two percent of the eligible population in Knox County has been fully vaccinated. Statewide, 77 percent of the eligible population has been fully vaccinated, ranging from a low of 63 percent in Somerset County to 88 percent in Cumberland County.
Medical leaders across the state continue to say the spread is being fueled by people who have not been vaccinated.
The administration of Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced last week that the state is no longer recommending masks be mandatory in schools. Local schools have followed that recommendation and made masks optional as of Monday, March 7. The city of Rockland also announced Friday that while masks are recommended in city buildings, they will be optional for fully vaccinated people but still required for unvaccinated.
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