Maine Reports 20 COVID-19 Deaths, Confirms 1,779 Additional Cases

Maine has reported 20 more deaths from COVID-19 and 1,779 more confirmed cases of the virus, with the highly contagious variant of omicron now considered the dominant strain spreading statewide.

This is the first update on new cases since last week as positive tests are not reviewed and confirmed over the weekend. The number of daily cases is no longer a reliable snapshot what is happening with COVID-19 due to the increase in the number of people who never get tested or who use home tests that are not reported to the state, as well as a large backlog of reports positive tests submitted to the State.

A small portion of the new cases reported on Tuesday are new positive tests and most were submitted to the state last month, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention website. In addition, with tests that are difficult to obtain, more and more people sick with COVID-19 are not getting tested.

As a result, daily case data is a significant undercoverage of the number of cases actually circulating in Maine. Since the start of the pandemic, Maine has recorded 155,155 cases of COVID-19 and 1,623 deaths.

Hospitalizations were not yet updated on Tuesday, but were within 403 Monday, a new record. However, intensive care use in the state has remained relatively stable as hospitalizations have skyrocketed, indicating that omicron is less severe than delta and earlier strains, according to some public health experts. Maine registered 107 intensive care patients statewide on Monday, and the state’s intensive care use has been around 110 in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, as more people are hospitalized with COVID-19, treatments are rare. With the omicron variant, two of the three monoclonal antibody treatments used in Maine were ineffective and were discontinued.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention also told health care providers on Friday evening that the most contagious omicron was now the dominant strain in Maine. He said laboratory sample estimates in the state suggest the variant now accounts for 70 to 90 percent of COVID-19 cases in the state.

The Maine health system has only about 144 doses of the remaining monoclonal antibody drug that is effective against omicron, sotrovimab, this week, not enough to treat those in need.

“Ultimately we’ll be in a very good place where we have excellent supplies, but unfortunately not in time for this increase,” said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, former director of the Maine CDC and currently responsible for improving the health care at MaineHealth, the state’s largest hospital network. “If someone tests positive for COVID and is at high risk of hospitalization, providers are at a dead end. “

In December, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the use of another treatment, an antiviral pill called Paxlovid, which also appears to be effective in combating cases of omicron. But its supplies have also been severely depleted in Maine and nationwide. Mills said the state received fewer than 300 doses of the Pfizer-made drug last week and did not expect another shipment for several weeks.

This story will be updated.

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