A DAILY DIGEST OF MAINE NEWS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2021 — ISSUE #58
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Welcome to the Daily Monitor, an evening email newsletter that recaps the most relevant news and information from our editorial team and from our media partners around the state. The Daily Monitor is a product of The Maine Monitor and the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting.
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24,901 TOTAL CASES (An increase of 700 from Thursday)
351 DEATHS (An increase of 4 from Thursday)
700 NEW DAILY CASES (A decrease of 2 from Thursday)
12,480 TOTAL ACTIVE CASES (An increase of 641 from Wednesday)
188 CURRENTLY IN HOSPITAL (An increase of 11 from Thursday)
11,374 RECOVERIES (An increase of 48 from Wednesday)
30,877 MAINERS VACCINATED (An increase of 7,350 from Thursday)
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Four more Mainers died as health officials on Friday reported 700 new coronavirus cases across the state.
Friday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 24,901, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 24,201 on Thursday.
Of those, 21,144 have been confirmed positive, while 3,757 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
The latest deaths include a woman in her 90s from Cumberland County; a woman in her 80s from Penobscot County; a man in his 90s from Washington County; and a woman in her 80s from Washington County. The statewide death toll now stands at 351.
As of Friday, 30,877 Mainers have been vaccinated against COVID-19, or 2.02 percent of the population. Maine ranks third in the country for the rate of vaccination according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker, coming in behind only West Virginia at 2.50 percent and South Dakota at 2.14 percent. The fast pace comes despite the state receiving thousands fewer doses than expected.
Information on where new cases were detected was not available on Friday morning due to technical problems, the Maine CDC said. The current number of active cases was also not available.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is contributing to rising hunger in Maine, and at the same time much of the state’s seafood harvest is struggling to find a market. Now a new program is addressing both challenges at once.
On a recent morning Bryan Pearce and his two-man crew motored his 45-foot gill-net trawler, the Gracelyn Jane, back to a Portland pier after two days at sea.
“We got 4,000 or 5,000 pounds total. Pollock, about 20 miles out,” Pearce says.
Baskets full of fish are winched into the sky, gleaming like silver ingots, and dumped into a chute. Thanks to a new program, “Fishermen Feeding Mainers,” many will be bought at a guaranteed floor price of $2 a pound, then shipped to food banks and schools around the state.
It’s a lifeline for Pearce in this year of COVID. Starting last spring, demand for most fish dropped precipitously as restaurants closed and access to foreign markets was shut off.
“I didn’t fish all summer. I didn’t start fishing until the project came about. So once that happened I started going full time. I had a guaranteed price, I knew what I could make. I said, ‘Well, that takes all the guesswork out of it, I’ll go. I’ll do it,’” he says.
Mary Hudson of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, which spearheaded the program, says the value of the state’s groundfish harvest dropped by almost 75% this year. And even at pennies per pound, some of it went unsold.
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More than 50 members of the Maine Legislature signed a letter on Friday demanding state utilities regulators again ban the disconnection of homes and businesses during the pandemic.
Members of the Legislature requested that the broad utility moratorium put in place by the Maine Public Utilities Commission in March, but halted on Nov. 1, be reinstated immediately for a minimum of 120 days.
The letter cited the “dramatically” rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state over the past two months and the resulting unemployment rate and small business closures.
“The dire economic and public health circumstances we face today are significantly worse than the situation we faced in [March 2020],” Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, wrote in the letter.
The letter comes a month after a group of Central Maine Power customers issued a similar demand, and was signed by 55 other senators and representatives in the Maine Legislature, including House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, and Senate Majority Leader Nate Libby, D-Lewiston.
The demand was primarily supported by members of the House and Senate Democratic caucuses, though some Independents and Republicans signed on, including Rep. Dwayne Prescott, R-Waterboro and Sen. Marianne Moore, R-Calais.
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The first babies of 2021 were born in Maine hospitals on New Year’s Day.
At Maine Medical Center in Portland, the Reiche family welcomed Winnie, a girl, who was born at 1:58 a.m. Friday, weighing 6 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring 19 1/4 inches long. Winnie is the first child of Sarah and George Reiche.
Sarah Reiche, a nurse in Maine Med’s neonatal intensive care unit, said the family is “so happy to welcome our new baby girl into 2021.”
At Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Anne and Robert Daniels of Kenduskeag welcomed a boy, Thomas Lee, born 10:30 a.m., weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces and measuring 20 inches in length.
“He is a blessing because it’s been a crazy 2020. We’re so happy to have the first baby born in 2021,” said Anne Daniels.
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The Maine Monitor/Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting
207-632-6881
Member, Institute for Nonprofit News and Investigative Reporters and Editors
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