State reports 1545 new cases of COVID-19 and 30 additional deaths – Press Herald

The number of COVID-19 patients in Maine hospitals remained above 400 on Wednesday for the 8th consecutive day, but the number in critical care dropped to its lowest total since early December.

According to data from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 411 individuals hospitalized on Wednesday, an increase of 11 from Tuesday. Of those, 102 are in critical care beds and 53 are on ventilators.

As the omicron variant has spread rapidly throughout the state, overall hospitalizations have gone up but the number of patients needing critical care or ventilators has declined, a sign that omicron is causing less severe symptoms for some.

State health officials also reported 1,545 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the first full case update since last Friday, and 30 additional deaths.

Maines pandemic death toll is now 1,688. Only Hawaii and Vermont have seen fewer deaths per capita during the pandemic.

The seven-day case average now stands at 915 cases, compared to 714 cases per day two week ago, although the actual rate of new infections is believed to be much higher.

Daily case updates, both in Maine and elsewhere, have become a less reliable metric for current virus transmission and significantly understate the rate of infections because of the staggering volume of positive tests flooding into state health offices and the inability of workers to keep up with screening them.

The Maine CDC, for example, has seen a significant increase in the number of positive tests received in the last two weeks, but that hasnt translated into a similar rise in the daily count of confirmed cases, which suggests staff are dealing with a major backlog of tests to process. Many of the cases reported Wednesday date back a week or two.

The state has received more than 2,000 positive test results a day for nearly the entire month of January and last week topped 3,000 per day. That is up sharply from about 1,000 positive tests a day in December and between 400 and 600 a day in September and October. Because an infected person can test positive more than once, duplicates have to be identified and removed before the state reports the number of confirmed cases.

Maine CDC director Dr. Nirav Shah is expected to address case data reporting and other topics at a media briefing on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Other indicators show the omicron variant continues to spread rapidly through the state.

Maines most recent seven-day positivity rate was a pandemic high 21 percent, which means more than 1 out of every 5 tests conducted is coming back positive. Additionally, the state is processing more tests than ever 905 per 100,000 people on a seven-day average and that doesnt even include at-home tests, the results of which are not always reported to the CDC.

The overall increase in hospitalizations is still adding to the tremendous strain hospitals already are facing. Dozens of Maine National Guard members will arrive this week as hospitals across the state to assist in non-clinical roles that will help free up needed beds.

Vaccinations, meanwhile, have fallen off after a ramp-up in November and December, when boosters were first approved for many adults and when children ages 5-11 became eligible. Overall, Maine has administered 971,527 final doses of vaccine, which means 72.3 percent of all residents are considered fully vaccinated.

Additionally, 533,870 individuals have gotten booster shots, which accounts for 39.7 percent of the population. The only state with a higher percentage of residents who have gotten boosters is Vermont, according to a state-by-state tracker from Bloomberg.

This story will be updated

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State reports 1545 new cases of COVID-19 and 30 additional deaths - Press Herald