May 17 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine

May 17 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine

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Another 39 cases of the new coronavirus have been detected in the state with no additional deaths reported Sunday.

There have now been 1,687 cases across all of Maine’s counties since March, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 1,648 on Saturday.

Of those, 1,511 have been confirmed positive, while 176 are likely positive, according to the Maine CDC.

The state death toll now stands at 70.

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

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

— A senior residence in Auburn has become the latest long-term care facility in Maine to confirm an outbreak of the coronavirus after three employees and one resident tested positive. Clover Health Care is now working with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to test its staff and residents — around 550 people — for the infection, according to Maine CDC spokesperson Robert Long.

— An employee of Birch Bay Retirement Village in Bar Harbor has tested positive for the coronavirus, but all other staff at the facility tested negative during an initial round of testing, a spokesperson said late Saturday.

— Skin doctors suddenly are looking at a lot of toes — whether by emailed picture or video visit — as concern grows that for some people, a sign of COVID-19 may pop up in an unusual spot. They’re being called “COVID toes,” red, sore and sometimes itchy swellings on toes that look like chilblains, something doctors normally see on the feet and hands of people who’ve spent a long time outdoors in the cold.

— — Calls to Maine’s mental health help and crisis lines have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Maine two months ago. But experts worry the true psychological toll of this disaster is one that could linger for months — if not years — especially for frontline health care providers and other essential workers who are at higher risk for the development of post-traumatic stress disorder.

— As many restaurants in 12 out of Maine’s 16 counties prepare to reopen for dine-in services on Monday, customers from across the state expressed varying levels of apprehension about it.

— Theaters have been scrambling to pay the bills and come up with contingency plans for a number of scenarios for the fall — from no fall season at all, to reduced capacity, to more performances in a shorter period of time.

— Maine is regularly one of the states with the highest voter turnout and has ranked highly in studies on ballot access with no-reason-necessary absentee ballots and same-day registration. The onus will be on cities and towns to ensure a safe summer election as they struggle to find poll workers. Even registering to vote is more of a challenge with municipal offices closed.

— Watch: Drug to treat coronavirus coming to Maine

—As of Sunday evening, the coronavirus has sickened 1,484,804 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 89,399 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

—Elsewhere in New England, there have been 5,705 coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts, 3,339 in Connecticut, 499 in Rhode Island, 171 in New Hampshire and 54 in Vermont.