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104,926 Cumulative vaccinations in Maine (An increase of 6,555 from Friday)

83,022 First doses administered in Maine (An increase of 4,627 from Friday)

21,904 Second doses administered in Maine (An increase of 2,028 from Friday)

36,598 Total cases (An increase of 324 from Friday)

544 Deaths (An Increase of 4 from Friday)

324 New daily cases (A decrease of 312 from Friday)

185 Currently in hospital (A decrease of 5 from Friday)

Another four Mainers have died as health officials on Saturday reported 324 more coronavirus cases.

One Androscoggin county resident, two Cumberland county residents and one Penobscot county resident died, bringing the statewide death toll to 544.

Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 485.1, down from 501.4 a day ago, down from 609.1 a week ago and up from 4760 a month ago.

The new case rate statewide Saturday is 2.42 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide is 273.45. READ MORE

Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King are part of a coalition of centrist senators aiming to influence legislation as the Biden administration begins, and one of the group’s priorities is to shape the proposed COVID-19 relief package. Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, are heading up the group, called the Common Sense Coalition or the Gang of 16. READ MORE

Though so-called “vaccine tourists” are likely scrambling to change plans after Florida officials cracked down on outsiders traveling there to jump the line for inoculations, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has not heard of any Mainers engaging in that practice.

“We’re getting lots and lots and lots of calls from people” who are under 70 and would like to get the vaccine," said Robert Long, the communications director for the Maine CDC. “But we’re not hearing them say, ‘All right, if you can’t do it, we’ll hop in a car and go to Florida.’ … We have not heard of snowbirds dashing down to Florida to get vaccinated.”

Florida had allowed anyone 65 and older to get vaccinated, regardless of residency status. But that changed this week after news outlets reported that some non-Floridians, including wealthy Argentinians, had participated in vaccine tourism — traveling to the state just to get vaccinated. READ MORE

A grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to boost efforts to create a viable sea-urchin aquaculture sector in the Gulf of Maine.

Maine’s wild urchin fishery is still tightly regulated after being overharvested decades ago. Steve Eddy, director of the University of Maine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research, says oyster and seaweed farmers could benefit by adding urchins to their crops for sale to Asian markets or live delivery to American restaurants.

“In Japan and maybe like France and Greece, some parts of Europe, where people buy live, whole urchins, they will pay $2, $3, as much as $5 per animal,” he says. READ MORE