The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday reported 205 new cases of COVID-19 and two deaths, continuing a surge that brought Maine’s positive test rate up to 4.1 percent this week. There were 88 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 around the state.

Just six weeks ago, the state recorded its lowest positive test rate since the pandemic began – 0.45 percent. But a summer surge fueled by the delta variant has spread disease quickly in Maine, and even faster around the country. The national average positive test rate is 9.5 percent.

Maine’s cumulative COVID-19 cases rose to 73,659 on Saturday. Of those, 53,427 have been confirmed by testing and 20,232 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of new daily cases was 160.1, and the 14-day average was 168.1.

Nine hundred twenty-four people have died with COVID-19 in Maine since the pandemic began. Demographic information about the two reported deaths wasn’t available from the CDC on Saturday.

Gov. Janet Mills enacted a vaccine mandate for health care workers earlier this month in response to the surge, and opposition from those who remain unvaccinated – about 20 percent of hospital staff – has some providers worried about staffing levels. Anti-mandate protesters over the past week have said they’d rather quit their jobs or be fired than receive a vaccine, and some employers say they’ve heard the same from their employees.

But it remains to be seen how many unvaccinated workers follow through with those threats.

By Saturday morning, Maine had given 832,723 people the final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Among people 12 and older, the population currently eligible for vaccination, 70.32 percent are now fully vaccinated.

Maine as of Friday had recorded 863 “breakthrough” cases, which occur when a fully vaccinated person contracts COVID-19. Unvaccinated people still make up the vast majority of new cases, and COVID-19 vaccines provide strong protection against serious illness even if a vaccinated person catches the disease.

Cumberland County on Saturday moved back down to the CDC’s “moderate” range of COVID-19 transmission. Franklin, Hancock, Knox, Lincoln, Oxford, Washington and York counties showed “substantial” transmission. Aroostook, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset and Waldo counties are exhibiting a “high” level of transmission, which is based on new cases per 100,000 population.

County by county as of Saturday, there had been 8,668 coronavirus cases in Androscoggin, 2,187 in Aroostook, 18,053 in Cumberland, 1,468 in Franklin, 1,543 in Hancock, 6,907 in Kennebec, 1,275 in Knox, 1,198 in Lincoln, 3,814 in Oxford, 7,093 in Penobscot, 686 in Piscataquis, 1,527 in Sagadahoc, 2,469 in Somerset, 1,401 in Waldo, 1,034 in Washington and 14,336 in York.

By age, 19 percent of patients were under 20, while 18.3 percent were in their 20s, 15.3 percent were in their 30s, 13.4 percent were in their 40s, 14.4 percent were in their 50s, 10.2 percent were in their 60s, 5.3 percent were in their 70s, and 4.2 percent were 80 or older.

Forty-four of the 88 COVID-19 patients hospitalized Saturday in Maine were in intensive care, and 19 were on ventilators.

Around the world on Saturday, there were 210.9 million known cases of COVID-19 and 4.4 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 37.6 million cases and 627,862 deaths.

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