The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,368 new cases of COVID-19 and five deaths over the weekend.
Hospitalization figures showed an improvement on Monday morning, with 203 people hospitalized because of the virus — down two from what was reported Sunday. Twenty-four people are in critical care, while three patients in the state require a ventilator.
After recording only three deaths last week, the five deaths reported over the weekend bring the statewide pandemic death toll to 2,343. The victims, two men and three women, include three people 80 or older, one in their 70s and one in their 60s. The Maine CDC reports one victim each from Cumberland, Penobscot, Kennebec, Somerset and Knox counties.
Since the pandemic began in Maine, there have been 259,635 cases, with 187,316 confirmed and 72,319 listed as probable.
Masks are now recommended indoors regardless of vaccination status in nine of Maine’s 16 counties that are classified as high risk by the federal CDC: Cumberland, Oxford, Androscoggin, Penobscot, Lincoln, Knox, Sagadahoc, Hancock and Aroostook.
Meanwhile, in response to the rising number of cases, the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory has announced a new, app-based COVID tracing program. Described in a statement as a “citizen science program,” the laboratory now allows participants over the age of 18 to use its public data platform, Anecdata.org, to anonymously provide information on symptoms, masking, which kind of test kit was used and the test result.
“It will provide very practical information that will inform our understanding of community spread, as SARS COV-2 and its sub variants continue to infect people worldwide. This survey tool will help us address critical questions about the relationship between timing of exposure, whether a mask was worn, what type of mask was worn, symptoms and results of different COVID-19 home test kits. The anonymous results are publicly available for download so that people can see what is happening in their communities,” said project leader Jane Disney.
