AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine public health authorities have unveiled a new website to help the public keep track of the state’s coronavirus vaccination effort.
The website includes a “vaccination dashboard” that reports the number of coronavirus vaccines delivered in the state. It stated Thursday that 128,704 total doses had been administered, including 97,033 first doses.
The website also includes resources about the state’s vaccination plans and information about when residents can expect to receive a coronavirus vaccine.
In other news related to the pandemic in Maine:
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THE NUMBERS
The latest average positivity rate in Maine is 4.35%. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Maine the AP calculates the rate by dividing new cases by test specimens using data from The COVID Tracking Project.
The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Maine did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 7.02% on Jan. 14 to 4.35% on Jan. 28.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than 38,000 positive cases of the virus and 570 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
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UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS
Claims for unemployment benefits dipped slightly in Maine last week but remained high because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the job market.
The state recorded some 2,800 new or reopened claims for state unemployment benefits, the Portland Press Herald reported. That was down from 3,300 a week earlier, but nearly three times the number from a year earlier.
The four-week average of new claims remained higher than at any point since July, the Press Herald reported.
The Maine Department of Labor said about 17,400 continued clams for state unemployment were filed last week. That was 400 more than the previous week.
There were also 12,800 continued claims under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, the department said. That was 1,500 less than the previous week.
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