| Click here for the latest coronavirus news, which the BDN has made free for the public. You can support our critical reporting on the coronavirus by purchasing a digital subscription or donating directly to the newsroom. As of Friday, there are 965 coronavirus cases confirmed in all of Maine’s counties, according to Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah. That’s up from 937 on Thursday. The latest deaths, a total of three since Thursday, involve a man in his 70s from Cumberland County, a woman in her 90s from Kennebec County and a man in his 60s York County, according to Shah. One of the deaths is affiliated with the Augusta Center for Health and Rehabilitation, the fourth death at the facility. The statewide death toll stands at 47. So far, 152 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 39 people are currently hospitalized in the state, with 17 in critical care and seven on ventilators, according to the Maine CDC. Here is the latest on the coronavirus and its impact on Maine. — Nursing home residents account for a greater share of coronavirus deaths in Maine than in most other states that have reported data on long-term care facility deaths. — University of Southern Maine student Maha Jaber is one of 193 nursing students and faculty members from across the University of Maine System who have volunteered to work in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care settings that need them as those facilities find themselves on the front lines of fighting COVID-19 in Maine. — More than a dozen Maine health care industry groups representing hospitals, nursing homes, doctors and others are a sking Gov. Janet Mills for civil and criminal immunity during the civil state of emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic. — Bangor and Brewer have so far not needed to make any major staffing cuts ahead of what are expected to be some serious drops in revenue over the coming year. But both cities are still bracing for a financial fallout. — Portland’s City Council will consider requiring workers who have close contact with the public to wear face coverings or face masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus, the Portland Press Herald reports. — A second person who visited the Hope House shelter in Bangor has tested positive for COVID-19, a spokesman said. —Many Mainers have faced long delays in receiving their unemployment checks. Maine’s labor commissioner said Friday the state will streamline processing of 20,000 unemployment claims that were awaiting fact-finding interviews scheduled as late as July while the coronavirus places unprecedented stress on the system. —The University of Maine System will offer college students stranded by the permanent closure of their campuses the chance to finish their degrees in Maine starting this fall while paying in-state tuition. — Mainers hunkering down at home have adopted a new pandemic pastime to stay entertained — teddy bear hunting. “Teddy Bear Hunts” have become a favorite for restless kids and people in the mood for a game of iSpy, right in their own neighborhoods. “Providing all frontline workers with protective equipment and strengthening and investing in our public health system will bolster our collective defense against this merciless virus — because protecting workers’ health and safety means public health protections for all of us,” writes Cynthia Phinney, president of the Maine AFL-CIO and Mike Belliveau, executive director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, in today’s opinion guest column. — Watch: The new way that Maine is classifying some COVID-19 cases — As of 7:30 a.m. Saturday, the coronavirus has sickened 905,333 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 51,949 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. — Elsewhere in New England, there have been 2,556 coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts, 1,764 in Connecticut, 202 in Rhode Island, 53 in New Hampshire and 44 in Vermont.
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