Maine reported 16 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday and no additional deaths, making for a total of only 28 new cases over the weekend.

Maine’s cumulative cases rose to 4,042, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 3,625 have been confirmed by testing and 417 are considered probable cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

One hundred twenty-five people have died with COVID-19 in Maine.

Subtracting the number of people who have recovered – 3,512 – and died, there were 405 active cases on Sunday.

Public health officials in Maine are already thinking ahead to their next battle in the pandemic. It’s not with the virus itself, but rather with skepticism about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

More than two dozen potential vaccines for COVID-19 are in human trials around the world, pushed forward by the urgent demand for an inoculation against the virus. But the speed at which the research is progressing, along with existing wariness of vaccines in some circles, has public health officials worried about reaching the critical mass of immunized people needed to contain the virus.

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With federal aid having expired at the end of July, unemployed Mainers are struggling to survive financially as negotiations to extend the package stall in Congress. Maine state legislators on Friday urged Congress to reach a deal that could preserve benefits for the roughly 80,000 Mainers about to lose them.

On Saturday, President Trump took executive action, signing orders that would extend unemployment benefits – at a reduced rate of $400 monthly rather than $600 – and provide other forms of economic relief, he said. Tax and spending policy are Congress’ purview under the Constitution, and the orders could see court challenges.

County by county in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 563 cases in Androscoggin, 33 in Aroostook, 2,088 in Cumberland, 45 in Franklin, 35 in Hancock, 170 in Kennebec, 27 in Knox, 35 in Lincoln, 53 in Oxford, 152 in Penobscot, four in Piscataquis, 56 in Sagadahoc, 33 in Somerset, 62 in Waldo, 13 in Washington, and 673 in York.

By age, 9.2 percent of patients were under 20, while 16.3 percent were in their 20s, 15.4 percent were in their 30s, 14.9 percent were in their 40s, 16.5 percent were in their 50s, 11.7 percent were in their 60s, 8 percent were in their 70s, and 8.1 percent were 80 or over.

Women still are the slight majority of cases, at just under 52 percent.

Of the nine patients with COVID-19 in Maine hospitals on Sunday, three were in intensive care and one was on a ventilator. The state had 140 intensive care unit beds available of 388, and 260 ventilators available of 317. Maine also had 444 alternative ventilators.

Around the world on Sunday evening, there were over 19.7 million known cases of COVID-19 and 728,612 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had more than 5 million cases and 162,851 deaths.

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