CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) Montgomery County saw a drastic drop in the calculated number of active COVID-19 cases on Thursday, Sept. 3, after the Tennessee Department of Health implemented a new formula and corrected a zip code error.
On Wednesday, Sept. 2, there were 1,038 active cases reported in Montgomery County, a number that has stayed above 1,000 since early August.
A day later, on Thursday, Sept. 3, that reported number plummeted to only 195 active cases.
Joey Smith, director at the Montgomery County Health Department, said they have been waiting in anticipation for these corrected active cases numbers.
Early in the COVID-19 outbreak, public health staff members conducted ongoing individual follow-up with cases to accurately answer the question, Has this case recovered?' Smith said. As case volume increased and long-term individual follow-up was not feasible, TDH began applying a 21-day automatic cutoff for this question.
The number of active cases was calculated by subtracting the number of recoveries and deaths from the total number of cases.
Previously, the Tennessee Department of Health considered a case recovered after 21 days.
But TDH announced on Sept. 3 they will begin to show that inactive/recovered cases will include people who are 14 days or more beyond their illness onset date (or, for asymptomatic cases, their specimen collection date).
This will more closely align with what is now understood about the infectious period of COVID-19, as recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show most patients with COVID-19 are no longer infectious after 10 days, TDH said in a news release.
There are about 1,700 cases for whom the county of residence needed to be corrected. For these individuals, the county does not correspond correctly to their street addresses, Smith said.
Positive case tests come from all over the world, pediatrician offices, clinics, etc., so zip codes that border a county may go incorrectly to another county, Smith said. This discrepancy can occur when a laboratory report contains incorrect county information. Some laboratory systems automatically assign county information based on an individuals ZIP code. Because some ZIP codes straddle county lines, the assigned county may be incorrect.
Smith said the corrected active cases and zip code corrections data will help not just their agency, but several others such as the school system to make decisions based on updated COVID-19 numbers.
Here are the updated Montgomery County numbers as of 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3:
Hahn has instructed staff: no more mistakes, said an official. The next few announcements have to be flawless.
Polls show that nearly a fifth of adults would refuse a coronavirus vaccine if one were available, in some cases over fears that any approval would be motivated by politics rather than science. Just 14 percent of voters would be more likely to take a vaccine recommended by Trump, according to a recent POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.
The FDA has been heavily scrutinized as regulators speed coronavirus therapies and potential vaccines, including its March decision to grant emergency authorization for a Trump-favored drug called hydroxychloroquine despite scant data that it worked to fight the virus. FDA subsequently withdrew the authorization after evidence the treatment didnt work, prompting public objections from the president.
Watchdogs and researchers again criticized the agency last week for its news release on the plasma authorization titled, Another Achievement in Administrations Fight Against Pandemic which many people within the FDA considered a breach of the agencys historic focus on science and for overstating the treatments effectiveness.
Hahn took to Twitter last Monday night to apologize for exaggerating the benefits of plasma, angering Azar, Caputo and other senior Trump administration officials. HHS officials the next day began the process of severing Hahns contract with Wayne Pines, a longtime APCO Worldwide executive and the communications consultant who advised him to make the apology.
HHS chief of staff Brian Harrison told POLITICO that the cancellation of Pines contract was routine, because it violated department protocols, and the department has been reviewing thousands of contracts, many of which are in the process of being canceled.
The timing was 100 percent coincidence and the cancellation was made by HHS at the recommendation of the HHS general counsel, Harrison said, adding that Azar was completely unaware of any contract with Wayne Pines.
Three senior officials also said FDA had not previously informed HHS leadership, including Caputo, about the contract with Pines.
Bringing someone on doesnt mean as a contractor, said a senior HHS official. If ever mentioned, the secretary wouldve assumed it was as an employee and that the operating division wouldve followed the appropriate hiring process.
However, three current and two former officials said that it was well-known by HHS leadership that Pines had been advising Hahn for months. Three people with knowledge of the situation said Azars own relationship with Pines dated back several years.
"Wayne Pines was an instrumental leader in Secretary Azar's confirmation hearing process," said a senior HHS official, who said that Azar consulted with Pines and worked out of his conference room at APCO Worldwide while preparing to become HHS secretary in 2017 and 2018.
Hahn asked for permission to bring Pines on board under contract in a meeting with Azar in late April, the senior official added, noting that FDA at the time was without a full-time media chief and Pines was a published author on FDA and crisis communications. This was the right guy at the right time.
The process of removing Pines last week was not coincidental, the senior official insisted. "Wayne was scapegoated by certain FDA officials for Hahn's apology tour." Pines was formally notified on Wednesday that his services would no longer be necessary, the senior official added.
Hahn subsequently ousted Emily Miller, the White House-installed spokesperson for FDA, who had no prior public health experience and had clashed with multiple officials, including Caputo, in her 11-day tenure. Two people close to the situation also said Miller played a key role in titling last weeks plasma announcement as a Trump administration achievement. While Miller will remain at the agency, her future position is still under consideration, but will likely be senior adviser to the commissioner, said four people familiar with the discussions.
Meanwhile, John Wolf Wagner who was removed as FDAs external affairs chief on Wednesday after just two months in that role is a close ally of Caputo, who officials say had served as Wagners effective boss.
Wolf is a very nice manzero FDA experience, said one senior health official. He has made it very clear that he does not take direction from Hahn.
Officials said both Wagner and Miller, a former reporter at the right-wing One America News Network, had frequently butted heads with the career civil servants in the FDA press office.
For instance, Wagner instructed the press shop that every response to reporters coronavirus-related or otherwise had to be brief, top-line statements, said one current FDA official.
Wagner and Miller also were against press officers speaking directly with reporters and often questioned staff when they worked on announcements that were unrelated to the pandemic, the official added, creating an additional logjam for staff who had to explain why other food and drug policy announcements were newsworthy. Its been very chaotic and confusing, the official said.
The latest news in health care politics and policy.
Current and former officials say the Trump administration has hampered its own message by installing political appointees with limited public health expertise during a pandemic.
Longtime communications hands have called on the health department to rely on experts in medical and scientific communications given the crisis.
They can be the best damn practitioners of communications, but if they've never done science or medicine, thats a problem, said Bill Pierce, who served as HHS top spokesperson during the George W. Bush administration and who now works at APCO. Science and medical communications is an art you have to know and understand the terrain. Its not just pronouncing funny words.
At stake: convincing Americans they can trust treatments devised by the Trump administration, even as messaging blunders consume disparate parts of the health department and questions swirl about their independence.
Youve got a public relations disaster at FDA, youve got a public relations disaster at CDC, and no one seems to be controlling the message, said a senior official. HHS is losing the PR narrative here.
Meanwhile, two career civil servants with years of FDA expertise have temporarily replaced Wagner and Miller in FDAs top communications roles, a move that drew bipartisan applause.
This is a huge relief, tweeted Rob Califf, a former FDA commissioner during the Obama administration a message swiftly seconded by Scott Gottlieb, Trumps former commissioner. Hahn himself praised the shift.
Thanks for your support of our career communicators, the FDA commissioner tweeted. They are top-notch professionals who understand our science-based mission.
Nonetheless, the White House is considering political appointees to potentially replace Wagner and Miller, said two individuals with knowledge of personnel plans.
We all know that if someone with the coronavirus coughs or sneezes on you, you're at risk of catching it.
But even when we speak or laugh or breathe, particles come out of our noses and mouths. Big bits of spittle can fly out when you're shouting and singing, along with respiratory droplets and tiny aerosolized particles that come out in clouds that may linger in the air. And if we're infected with the coronavirus even if we don't have any symptoms those excretions could contain live, contagious SARS-COV-2 that can make others sick.
In some settings especially poorly ventilated indoor rooms where many people are gathering researchers increasingly believe that clouds of the virus expelled when someone speaks are able to stay aloft in the air and potentially infect people farther away than the recommended 6 feet of social distance.
In these settings, an infectious person shouting or laughing or coughing can release clouds containing the virus that can build up, linger and waft in the air and then be inhaled by passersby and settle in their lungs.
What's the evidence, you ask?
There was that time in late January, when 10 people were infected in a windowless restaurant in Guangzhou, China. More than 80 people had shared the dining room during the lunch period but the 10 who got sick were all sitting in the path of one air conditioning vent that may have sucked in viral particles from someone in the room who was later confirmed to have COVID-19.
Another classic example scientists bring up is a choir practice, back in March in Washington state. Fifty-three out of 61 people who attended came down with COVID-19. The act of singing, where you're breathing deeply and projecting your voice, can spews tiny virus particles from deep inside the lungs that can then stay aloft in the air.
Researchers think those clouds of airborne coronavirus exhaled by infectious people may be a key factor in superspreading events one gathering that results in a number of new cases.
Clusters of infections have also emerged among students returning to college dormitories in North Carolina, musicians and revelers in a nightclub district in Hong Kong, guests at a wedding reception in rural Maine, residents in a nursing home in The Netherlands, worshippers at a church in South Korea, staff and inmates at a prison in Ohio.
"We see this over and over and over again," said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for the World Health Organization's emergencies program, on Aug. 21, "This virus is being driven by outbreaks in clusters."
What's still unclear is how long the virus lingers in the air, how far it travels through a room, how much you need to breathe in to get infected and how commonly it spreads this way.
But scientists say it's become increasingly clear that airborne virus particles help the coronavirus superspread.
So if a friend invites you over for drinks and you want to say yes, what can you do to protect yourself?
Make the indoors more like the outdoors
That's what researchers recommend, because it seems that airflow is a factor in transmission. "You limit aerosol transmission by increasing ventilation and increasing air circulation," says Seema Lakdawala, a flu researcher at University of Pittsburgh, which means opening the windows that surround you and putting fans in them, facing inward, to draw outside air in. That fresh air will scatter any clouds of virus that might exist. That way, you're less likely to breathe in a big infectious dose.
When you can, move your get-together outside to a location where fresh air is all around you a backyard, for example. Lakdawala's neighborhood hosts happy hours, "where everybody brings a lawn chair and we sit on someone's lawn. Everyone is spatially distanced and brings their own drink."
Clean the air
Researchers recommend that you consider an air purifier if you periodically have guests over or if some members of your household work outside the home. "You wouldn't drink water downstream from another town without treating it. But we breathe air from other people without treating it," says Donald Milton, an infectious disease aerobiologist at the University of Maryland.
Effective air purifiers range from $100-$600, depending on technology, energy efficiency and the recommended room size, according to an analysis by Wirecutter.
And keep your distance
Much of this is common knowledge by now, but make sure you wear your mask correctly making sure that it fits snugly over your nose and mouth while not obstructing your ability to breathe and that you keep a personal space bubble of at least 6 feet between you and other people.
The mask will catch a lot of the droplets that come out when you speak or laugh or cough and also block some of other people's droplets from getting into your nose and mouth.
Greet your friend with a wave or an air hug from 6 feet away. That personal space bubble between you and others means there's more air passing between you to dilute any virus clouds that might be expelled.
Ultimately, health officials say, there is no such thing as zero risk. But by keeping the air around you moving you'll minimize your chances of inhaling a big, infectious whiff of virus.
This negative-stained transmission electron micrograph depicts the ultrastructural details of an influenza virus particle, or virion. Frederick Murphy/CDC hide caption
This negative-stained transmission electron micrograph depicts the ultrastructural details of an influenza virus particle, or virion.
With the annual flu season about to start, it's still unclear exactly how influenza virus will interact with the coronavirus if a person has both viruses.
Doctors around the world have seen some patients who tested positive for both influenza virus and the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. At least a couple of dozen cases have been reported although that's not a lot, given that over 26 million people have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Still, "it is quite possible and likely that the two viruses could infect a patient at the same time or, for that matter, sequentially: one month, one virus, and the next month, the other virus," says Michael Matthay, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Both viruses can cause dangerous inflammation in the lungs that can fill the airspaces with fluid, making it difficult to breathe, he notes.
"It's likely with both viruses at the same time, the severity of respiratory failure would be greater," says Matthay. "Or, of course, having two illnesses in a row that affected the lungs would make the respiratory failure more severe."
COVID-19 is so new, though, that scientists just don't have enough research to know for sure.
Generally speaking, co-infections are common when it comes to respiratory diseases. Helen Chu, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, has done studies to screen people with respiratory symptoms for a variety of viruses.
"We often find the presence of more than one virus at a time," says Chu, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there's actually more than one active infection. "You could be at the end of your illness, so you are no longer symptomatic from it, but you can still detect nonviable virus."
One study looked at people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and found that about 20% tested positive for at least one other respiratory virus, such as rhinovirus which is a common cold virus or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can be serious in infants and older adults.
Past research suggests that viruses can have complicated interactions when two are present. An extra virus can do nothing at all, can make an illness more severe or possibly even have some kind of short-term protective effect.
For example, it's unclear if rhinovirus can make a bout with flu worse, says Chu.
"But for a lot of the other viruses that are known causes of disease like parainfluenza virus and human metapneumovirus and human coronavirus, those can work with flu and cause you to have more severe disease," says Chu.
Not everyone agrees on that. "There are many studies all over the map," says Sarah Meskill, assistant professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
"The studies looking at previous coronavirus infection with influenza are so sparse it's really hard to know," adds Meskill, saying that her gut reaction is that "we're going to see co-infections, we are going to see patients positive for both" flu virus and the coronavirus.
Some epidemiological research shows that respiratory viruses can compete with each other in a way that means one virus can suppress the spread of another.
RSV and influenza virus are a good example of that, says Meskill, explaining that when both try to infect the same cell, one will win. What's more, when RSV levels in a population tend to be high, levels of flu tend to be low, and vice versa.
Tanya Miura, a virologist at the University of Idaho, says that when a new pandemic flu virus swept through in 2009, "it was delayed in certain populations that were having ongoing outbreaks of other respiratory viruses at the time."
Her work with lab animals shows that getting a mild respiratory virus can seem to offer some protection against getting a different, more severe one a couple of days later.
In the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu season is just coming to an end, doctors saw very little flu at all this year, probably mostly because of travel restrictions, the wearing of masks and social distancing.
And the number of circulating respiratory viruses does seem to be lower up north, too, says Chu, who has been searching for them in her city: "There's really no transmission of these other viruses going on in the community right now. That is what we are seeing in Seattle."
The flu isn't completely absent, though. "I can tell you that we're starting to find flu," says Chu. "It's very important to get vaccinated."
Getting vaccinated against seasonal flu would both protect people against a double whammy from the flu and COVID-19 and reduce the total number of flu cases. That would help a health care system that is struggling to cope with one serious respiratory illness already.
It's worth noting that the symptoms of the flu fever, muscle aches, cough can be very similar to those of COVID-19.
"Just because you test positive for the flu doesn't mean you don't have coronavirus," says Meskill. "You should still be doing your social distancing and quarantining."
And some researchers are getting ready to look at people who have mostly recovered from the flu and then get COVID-19. "Is it going to make it worse? Is it going to limit the virus or the transmission?" wonders Stacey Schultz-Cherry, an infectious diseases researcher at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. "We're actually starting those studies soon."
Autumn really worries me
As fall approaches in much of the world, many people are anxious about what will happen when cold weather forces people indoors. Will the virus resurge with a vengeance, especially as people return to offices and schools reopen?
To get a preview of the fall, we spoke to Donald G. McNeil Jr., The Timess infectious disease expert, whose job has become envisioning the future of the coronavirus crisis.
Weve been warned about a fall wave for a long time, but then we had a bad summer wave. What most worries you about the fall?
I try to avoid wave metaphors because each outbreak is unique. New York City and Sturgis, S.D., both had bad ones, but months apart and for different reasons: New York in February because of tourists returning from Europe; Sturgis in August because of a motorcycle rally where masks were disdained.
But yes, autumn really worries me. Outbreaks are exploding at colleges all across the nation. There may initially be fewer deaths because students are young but professors arent.
And soon, chilly weather will drive people indoors, where studies suggest you are 20 times more likely to get infected. By midwinter, if we arent careful, the death toll could head back up toward its April apex.
How will celebrating the holidays be different this year?
No American wants to hear this, but experts say it probably wont be prudent to have big indoor family gatherings for Rosh Hashana, Thanksgiving or Christmas. Its sad, but I dont see a safe option especially for families with a child away at school. When college towns become epicenters, you really dont want students to come home and unwittingly infect their families. And students need to consider this: Yes, its miserable to miss a family holiday but could you forgive yourself if your grandmother died because of you?
What scientific developments are you following most closely?
Scientists I talk to are optimistic about monoclonal antibodies. One called them convalescent plasma on steroids. The best antibodies are cloned and grown in cell broths. Small doses might act like vaccines that protect for a few weeks. If they do, getting them to high-risk Americans medical workers, nursing home patients and the families of the infected could blunt the epidemic. But they cant be grown in bulk quickly or cheaply, and F.D.A. approval for prophylactic use is uncertain.
President Trump has pledged to have a vaccine before the end of the year. Is that realistic, and if so, would there be safety concerns?
Vaccine experts I talk to are very nervous right now.
Actually, many of them believe that by late December or January, we may have solid proof that one or even several vaccines are safe and effective. That would be very good news.
What they fear, however, is an October surprise, the possibility that, to boost his chances on Nov. 3, President Trump could pressure the Food and Drug Administration to grant a premature emergency use approval for a vaccine. (The F.D.A. did that for hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma based on data that many scientists felt was weak.)
There are three ways that might happen:
The most shocking would be if the F.D.A. just used the Phase 2 and monkey data that it already has. But thats what the Russians and the Chinese did, and it caused an outcry here. Americans might feel like guinea pigs, shun the vaccine and be angry at the administration for trying.
The second would be for the F.D.A. to pressure the trials data safety monitoring boards to divulge what they know. As a safety precaution, those independent boards look at partial data before the trial finishes to make sure no participants are being hurt. They normally keep anything else they learn secret. But if a vaccine looked even partly effective, the F.D.A. might approve based on that. However, experts think it is unlikely the boards will have enough data by early November. They also say that vaccine companies might actually fight an F.D.A. approval in court if they think its dangerously premature.
Updated September 1, 2020
The third possibility would be that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which started testing early in Brazil, gets approved in Europe by October, and the F.D.A. echoes the approval even though the Europeans set a lower standard of proof than the F.D.A. did for American manufacturers.
Thats what keeps me up at night, one expert told me.
Is there any hopeful news about the virus that we can lean on as the pandemic carries on?
Yes, absolutely. Im optimistic that there will be safe vaccines pouring out of factories by sometime next spring, and that this will all be over far faster than I expected just a few months ago.
Heres a roundup of restrictions in all 50 states.
Having some extra time, my fianc and I decided to volunteer at our local shelter as kitten snugglers. The idea is to hold feral kittens in your lap for a while to help them get familiar with human touch and help them get adopted quicker. It has been amazing to get regular snuggles and relieve my kitten fever without me bringing another cat home!
nne Allaje, Tartu, Estonia
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CHICAGO Mayor Lori Lightfoot said shed be shocked if a coronavirus vaccine is available before Election Day in November.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has notified public health officials in Chicago and other places to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups as soon as late October or early November, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The report alarmed officials throughout the country who worried the timing of the vaccine was being politicized to help President Donald Trump, who is trailing in the polls as the United States fumbles its COVID-19 response. Previously, experts said a vaccine likely wouldnt be safely approved and available until the end of the year or early 2021.
Lightfoot, speaking at an unrelated press conference Thursday, also expressed worries.
Im very concerned about the fact that the CDC is now talking about vaccines in connection with elections, Lightfoot said. That should not be happening. We should always be focused, particularly when it comes to response to COVID-19, on what the science tells us.
The Chicago Department of Public Health has been preparing for some time for a vaccination campaign, Lightfoot said.
The mayor and the citys health commissioner, Allison Arwady, have repeatedly spoken about how the city is making plans to vaccinate as many Chicagoans as possible.
RELATED: Citys New Chi COVID Coach App Lets You Sign Up For Vaccine Alerts, Testing Information And More
Arwady has said she expects the vaccine to be available starting late this year or in early 2021, with frontline workers like health care workers and people who are more at risk expected to get vaccinated first.
Women who are pregnant and young children likely wont be able to get the vaccine right away, as more research will be needed to determine if it safe for them.
Earlier this week, Arwady said she expects it will take a full year to get everyone vaccinated.
Lightfoot poo-poohed the idea a vaccination could be available by Nov. 3, Election Day.
I would be shocked if that happens before Election Day, Lightfoot said. Thats why Im deeply concerned about the CDC talking at all about anything other than what the science is, what the results are of the Phase 3 trials. Thats the language of the CDC; not elections.
Chicagoans interested in signing up for vaccination information can sign up online for information from the health department.
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Dwayne Johnson, the actor and former wrestler known as the Rock, announced on Instagram on Wednesday that he and his family had recently tested positive for the coronavirus.
Mr. Johnson, 48, said they had become infected around two and a half weeks ago, from very close family friends. He called it one of the most challenging and difficult things we have ever had to endure as a family, but added that he and his family were now on the other end of it and were healthy and no longer contagious.
While the symptoms were mild for his youngest daughters, Jasmine and Tiana, Mr. Johnson said he and his wife had a rough go with the virus.
Mr. Johnson also urged people to wear masks.
It baffles me that some people out there including some politicians will take this idea of wearing masks and make it part of a political agenda, he said.
It has nothing to do with politics, he said. Wear your mask.
Mr. Johnson added that his mother, who had part of her lungs removed before recovering from lung cancer, still wears a mask every day.
His announcement comes as coronavirus cases increase around the world, with over 26 million people infected and at least 862,000 dead from the virus, according to a New York Times database.
In the United States, at least 1,074 deaths and over 40,000 new cases were reported on Wednesday, when Mr. Johnson posted to Instagram about his experience with Covid-19.
While Mr. Johnson said he and his family still trust the friends from whom they contracted the coronavirus, he advised people to take all precautions before seeing others. Think twice about who you have over to your house, he said.
Mr. Johnson joins a long list of celebrities, athletes and public figures who have contracted the virus and called on the public to treat it seriously by wearing masks, social distancing and taking other precautions. The list includes Hollywood stars like Tom Hanks and his wife, the actress Rita Wilson; athletes like the basketball players Kevin Durant and Rudy Gobert; and world leaders such as Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain.
Another 53 new coronavirus cases have been reported in Maine, health officials said Thursday.
Thursdays report brings the cumulative total of coronavirus cases across the state to 4,617. Of those, 4,145 have been confirmed positive, while 472 were classified as probable cases, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency revised Wednesdays cumulative total to 4,564, down from 4,567, meaning there was an increase of 50 over the previous days report, state data show. As the Maine CDC continues to investigate previously reported cases, some are determined to have not been the coronavirus, or coronavirus cases not involving Mainers. Those are removed from the states cumulative total.
It was the second-highest daily increase in cases over the past 30 days. On Aug. 29, 55 new cases were reported. Over the past seven days, there has been an average of 30 new cases a day.
New cases were reported in Androscoggin (4), Cumberland (10), Hancock (3), Kennebec (2), Knox (1), Oxford (3), Penobscot (7), Somerset (4), Waldo (1) and York (16) counties, state data show. Information about where additional cases were reported wasnt immediately available.
No new deaths were reported Thursday, leaving the statewide death toll at 133. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
A University of Maine System spokesperson said Thursday that known infections across the states public universities now number 14. That includes three new cases at the University of Maine in Orono, where nine students are infected. Three are isolating on campus while the others are in isolation off campus, spokesperson Dan Demeritt said. Four previously infected students have been released from isolation.
The other positive cases include an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maine at Farmington and four students at the University of Southern Maine in Portland three isolating on-campus and one isolating off-campus Demeritt said.
One individual at Husson University has tested positive for the virus, according to college president Robert A. Clark on Wednesday. The employee is currently isolating at home. Seventy-three out of 634 staff members have been tested, while 196 out of 2,618 students have completed testing. No students have tested positive as of Thursday.
So far, 424 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, nine people are currently hospitalized, with four in critical care and one on a ventilator.
Meanwhile, 10 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total recoveries to 3,988. That means there are 496 active confirmed and probable cases in the state, which is up from 456 on Wednesday.
A majority of the cases 2,640 have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Thursday, there have been 283,769 negative test results out of 290,281 overall. Just under 2 percent of all tests have come back positive, the most recent available Maine CDC data show.
The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 2,206 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths 70 have been concentrated. It is one of four counties the others are Androscoggin, Penobscot and York, with 620, 241 and 867 cases, respectively where community transmission has been confirmed, according to the Maine CDC.
There are two criteria for establishing community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are not connected to either known cases or travel. That second condition has not yet been satisfied in other counties.
Other cases have been reported in Aroostook (38), Franklin (53), Hancock (50), Kennebec (193), Knox (31), Lincoln (36), Oxford (70), Piscataquis (8), Sagadahoc (61), Somerset (58), Waldo (70) and Washington (15) counties.
As of Thursday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 6,115,638 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 185,756 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
Also, a second person connected to the outbreak died of the virus in the past week, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Robert Long told CNN.
The wedding was less than a month ago, in Millinocket on August 7. Since then, the cases have spread to a nursing home and a prison, both more than 100 miles away from the venue.
Last week, Maine CDC said 60 cases were linked to the wedding, but this week it had updated that number to 56. Now, there are 144 cases of coronavirus tied to what was supposed to be a joyous event, more than doubling the cases.
The wedding outbreak investigation is still at 56 cases between the guests and their secondary and tertiary contacts. Secondary contacts are people who had close contact with someone who attended and tertiary contacts are people who had close contact with a secondary.
Covid cases at a jail and nursing home
The agency announced last week that there were outbreaks at Maplecrest Rehabilitation Center in Madison and at York County Jail in Alfred, both linked to the wedding event.
Now, 72 people connected to the York County Jail have tested positive for the virus, Long said. Of those, 46 are inmates, 19 work at the jail and seven are household members of those jail employees.
The jail is more than 220 miles away from where the reception was held. Maine CDC has been investigating the outbreak at the jail since August 21.
The outbreak at Maplecrest Rehabilitation and Living Center in Madison, which is more than 100 miles from the wedding venue, has also grown, according to Maine CDC.
An employee of the nursing home is a secondary case associated with the wedding outbreak. Sixteen people at Maplecrest have tested positive, including that person.
"That's what Covid-19 is like. You open up glitter in Millinocket and next thing you know you are finding traces of it at a jail complex in York County. It's just emblematic of how quickly, silently and efficiently it can spread."
Wedding venue cited
Shah said last week they are investigating other points of connection with the group including the ceremony that was held at Tri Town Baptist Church.
The Big Moose Inn said it misinterpreted the state's rules on social distancing in a statement sent to CNN on August 29.
"We understood that there could be no more than 50 persons in our largest room. We did make an error in the interpretation of that rule," the venue said in the statement. "Our interpretation was that we could take a wedding party of more than 50 persons, and split them between two rooms as long as it didn't exceed our total capacity or a specific room's capacity."
CNN's Lauren del Valle, Anna Sturla, Rebekah Riess, Laura Ly and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.
The Oregon Health Authority reported 274 new confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases and three deaths Thursday, raising the states total to 27,336 cases and 470 deaths. The daily case count is the highest since last Friday.
The new cases come a day after state officials reported the lowest case count since June for the second time this week. Officials say that daily infections have been slowly and steadily declining since the end of July.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths has continued to rise. This is partly because someone may have the disease for weeks before its fatal.
With 126 deaths, August was the deadliest month in Oregon since the pandemic began, according to data from the state health authority. The total is expected to grow as delayed reports of deaths continue to be announced in the coming days.
Where the new cases are by county: Baker (2), Clackamas (24), Columbia (2), Coos (4), Deschutes (4), Douglas (1), Jackson (18), Jefferson (6), Josephine (1), Lane (13), Lincoln (1), Linn (2), Malheur (23), Marion (36), Morrow (7), Multnomah (65), Umatilla (15), Wasco (4), Washington (40), and Yamhill (6).
New Fatalities: State officials reported the following deaths Thursday:
A 79-year-old man in Malheur County is Oregons 468th COVID-19 death. He tested positive July 14 and died at Vibra Hospital of Boise, Idaho, Aug. 23. He had unspecified underlying health conditions.
A 56-year-old man in Washington County is Oregons 469th COVID-19 death. He tested positive Aug. 1 and died at Providence St. Vincent Aug. 22. He had unspecified underlying health conditions.
A 96-year-old woman in Marion County is Oregons 470th COVID-19 death. She tested positive July 8 and died in her home Aug. 21. She had unspecified underlying health conditions.
Prevalence of infection: Since Wednesday, state officials reported that 4,732 Oregonians had been tested, with 250 tests coming back positive, amounting to a positivity rate of 5.3%.
Who got infected: Since Wednesday, state officials reported 261 new cases among the following age ranges: 0-9 (12); 10-19 (25); 20-29 (55); 30-39 (53); 40-49 (46); 50-59 (25); 60-69 (17); 70-79 (12); 80 and older (16).
Whos in the hospital: State officials Thursday reported that 87 Oregonians are currently hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19, one less than yesterday. Hundreds of hospital beds and ventilators remain available.
Since it began: State officials have reported 27,336 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. In all, 569,804 Oregonians have been tested.
-- Bryce Dole; bdole@oregonian; 541-660-9844; @DoleBryce
