April 28 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine

April 28 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine

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.

There have now been 1,040 confirmed coronavirus cases across all of Maine’s counties, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 1,023 on Monday.

The statewide death toll stands at 51. No new deaths were reported Tuesday.

So far, 163 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 33 people are currently hospitalized, with 17 in critical care and seven on ventilators, according to the Maine CDC.

[Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county]

Meanwhile, another 585 people have fully recovered from the coronavirus, meaning there are 404 active cases in the state. That’s down from 423 on Monday.

Here’s the latest on the coronavirus and its impact on Maine.

— Certain Maine businesses can reopen on Friday as part of a gradual plan to lift coronavirus-related restrictions, though many businesses could remain closed deep into the summer, Gov. Janet Mills said Tuesday as she outlined her plan to open Maine’s economy.

— Read the timeline for that plan here.

—The forgivable federal loans aimed at helping Maine businesses stay afloat and pay their employees have unexpectedly caused a conundrum for some owners who are holding off on rehiring workers and others who are considering giving back all or part of the money. At the heart of the problem are the conditions on how and when the money can be spent in a way that the business owners can get the loan forgiven. Many say the U.S. Small Business Administration still hasn’t provided clear guidelines on forgivable uses of the money.

— The nationwide foodservice shutdown has left Aroostook’s potato industry struggling. About 12-15 percent of potatoes from the 2019 harvest have gone unsold so far, and because of the steep decline in demand for the 2019 crop, farmers’ spring potato planting likely will be down at least 5,000 acres — about a 10 percent drop in acreage since last year.

— Calais Regional Hospital is cutting its full-time workforce by about 10 percent as it contends with bankruptcy and the pandemic, the hospital said in a memo sent to employees on Monday. It marks the latest in a long series of reductions to staff and services at the critical access hospital, which has continued to operate in the red year after year.

—Self-employed workers and independent contractors will be able to apply for federally funded unemployment benefits starting on Friday, the Maine Department of Labor announced on Tuesday. Unincorporated self-employed workers make up about 10 percent of Maine’s labor force, and are ineligible for traditional unemployment benefits, which are paid for by taxes on employers.

—Gov. Janet Mills’ order Monday that state agencies freeze spending and hiring except for emergencies could free up to $252 million in unspent funds to help shore up a state budget likely to be thrown out of balance as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but it’s likely not all of the money will be available.

—The Portland City Council voted unanimously Monday night to extend the city’s emergency stay-at-home order put in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The order has been extended through May 18.

— As of early Tuesday morning, the coronavirus has sickened 1,010,717 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 58,365 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

— Elsewhere in New England, there have been 3,153 coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts, 2,089 in Connecticut, 239 in Rhode Island, 60 in New Hampshire and 47 in Vermont.

Watch: Gov. Janet Mills, Maine CDC press conference, April 28

April 27 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine

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.

There have now been 1,023 confirmed coronavirus cases across all of Maine’s counties, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 1,015 on Sunday.

The statewide death toll stands at 51. The latest death involved a man in his 70s from Kennebec County.

So far, 161 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 39 people are currently hospitalized, with 16 in critical care and seven on ventilators, according to the Maine CDC.

[Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county]

Meanwhile, another 549 people have fully recovered from the coronavirus, meaning there are 423 active cases in the state. That’s down from 433 on Sunday.

Here’s the latest on the coronavirus and its impact on Maine.

— Gov. Janet Mills suggested on Monday that she might reduce restrictions on businesses when a stay-at-home order expires at the end of April, but she told Mainers to “stay the course” on public health measures aimed at slowing the coronavirus. Mills told reporters she was likely to extend parts of a stay-at-home order in effect through Thursday. She signaled a shift by saying some restrictions might be lifted gradually based on whether workplaces can “conduct business safely” and not whether businesses are considered “essential, saying she would announce a plan for extending the order on Tuesday.

— Maine residents who have legal questions about how they are being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic can get free answers from the website, maine.freelegalanswers.org, staffed by the Volunteer Lawyers Project.

—Calls placed to the Northern New England Poison Center from people’s homes have increased, according to Karen Simone, a toxicologist who runs the center at Maine Medical Center in Portland, but they do not appear to be a result of President Trump’s suggestion Friday that ingesting certain household cleaners can keep people from getting the disease. Rather, the increase seems to stem in part from more intense home cleaning efforts aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19, she said, and the occasional mishaps that result.

—Over the past weeks, Maine’s classic dairy bars and artisan ice cream purveyors have been opening up shop in a dramatically altered world where face masks, hand sanitizer and social distancing are the rules of the day. For most, a takeout window means opening for business is a bit easier in the time of coronavirus, when many operations have had to install plex-glass barriers between customers and cashiers.

—The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s headquarters reopened Monday after a coronavirus exposure briefly shuttered the headquarters of the agency responsible for leading the state response to the pandemic.

— Bowdoin College in Brunswick is facing down a loss of more than $8 million due to the new coronavirus. The Times Record reports that the hit is coming primarily from room-and-board refunds after the college opted to not have students return after spring break, making it one of the first Maine universities to close its campus in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

—Before her double-lung transplant, Joanne Mellady of Boston could barely put on a shirt without losing her breath. Afterward, she barely stopped moving. Mellady died of the coronavirus in March 2020, highlighting the vulnerability of organ transplant recipients to the virus.

—The eagerly anticipated second round of federal stimulus loans aimed at helping small businesses pay employees during the coronavirus outbreak rolled out on Monday, when the system processing loans almost immediately came to a halt before it began working again sluggishly several hours later. Within minutes of opening to applications at 10:30 a.m., the U.S. Small Business Administration’s E-Tran loan processing system went down, and started working again around noon, according to spokespeople from Camden National Bank and Bangor Savings Bank.

— As of early Monday morning, the coronavirus has sickened 980,008 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 55,637 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

— Elsewhere in New England, there have been 3,003 coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts, 1,924 in Connecticut, 233 in Rhode Island, 60 in New Hampshire and 47 in Vermont.

Watch: State labor commissioner speaks to unemployed Mainers