July 22 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine – Bangor Daily News

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More than two dozen new coronavirus cases were reported on Wednesday as the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention determined a number of previously reported cases to be false positives.

Twenty-eight new cases of the coronavirus were reported Wednesday, according to Maine CDC spokesperson Robert Long. He said 25 of those cases were confirmed and three probable. That brings the total cases reported since the outbreak began in March to 3,723.

Of those, 3,321 had been confirmed positive, while 402 were classified as probable cases, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

No new deaths were reported Wednesday, leaving the statewide death toll at 118. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

Wednesdays cumulative total remains steady because the Maine CDC determined 24 probable cases, including 19 associated with a summer camp, were false positives, Long said Wednesday. Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah on Tuesday attributed those false positives from the summer camp, which he did not identify, to less reliable technology it used for testing.

Another four previously reported confirmed cases were determined to involve people from out of state and are no longer being counted as Maine cases, bringing the net increase in cumulative cases to 21.

So far, 377 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 10 people are currently hospitalized, with eight in critical care and four on ventilators.

Meanwhile, 25 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total recoveries to 3,216. That means there are 389 active and likely cases in the state, down from 414 on Tuesday.

Heres the latest on the coronavirus and its impact on Maine.

Congress returned to work this week still far apart on components of a fifth coronavirus stimulus package, including whether to extend the $600 weekly enhanced unemployment benefit set to expire at the end of this month. Heres whats at stake for Maine.

Visits to Maines state parks by residents are up by 35 percent so far this year compared to 2019, according to Jim Britt, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. And while much of that increase is attributable to sites in the more popular southern part of the state, the trend toward staycations has not escaped inland parks farther north, including two in Piscataquis County. Ernie Clark, BDN

While Maine is generally outperforming much of the country in its testing for the coronavirus, some health care providers are still struggling to reliably obtain the nasal swabs, transport vials and other supplies necessary to conduct those tests. Charles Eichacker, BDN

If students in Bangor return to school buildings this fall, theyll go through daily temperature scans, have meals served in classrooms where desks are at least 6 feet apart, and walk through one-way stairwells and hallways marked to keep students at a safe distance from others. Eesha Pendharkar, BDN

As of Wednesday evening, the coronavirus has sickened 3,940,592 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 142,756 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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July 22 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine - Bangor Daily News

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