| Today is Thursday. There have now been 1,515 confirmed and likely cases of the new coronavirus in Maine since the outbreak began in March, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. A woman in her 90s from Cumberland County has died, bringing the statewide death toll to 66. So far, 204 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, while 943 Mainers have fully recovered from the coronavirus, leaving 506 active and likely cases in the state. That’s up from 499 on Tuesday. Here’s a roundup of the latest news about the coronavirus and its impact in Maine. — The Maine CDC will provide an update on the coronavirus this afternoon. The BDN will livestream the briefing. — For the second time, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills extended her civil state of emergency proclamation for another month on Wednesday, giving her more time to access federal funding and use certain powers to slow the spread of the coronavirus. That order gives Mills the ability to suspend the enforcement of laws, establish emergency reserves of certain products and allows the state to access federal funding to mitigate the outbreak. The order now extends until June 11. — She ran sled dogs, spent summers mining for gold and silver in the remote mountain ranges of Alaska and raised a family of boys on the wild edge of civilization. In other words, Terri Jones, 73, “lived it full,” according to her son, David Jones of Belfast. But about a year after her husband and soulmate, Ken Jones, died, Terri Jones’ zest for life had just about disappeared. And when death came for her last month at The Commons at Tall Pines — the Belfast nursing facility that was then in the thick of a battle against the new coronavirus — it came fast. — Vaccinations for low-income children dropped sharply in the months of March and April in Maine, a possible fallout from people delaying routine health care during the coronavirus pandemic. A federally funded program that provides free vaccinations for children whose families would otherwise be unable to access them distributed 28 percent fewer vaccines in March and 45 percent fewer in the month of April compared with last year’s distributions, according to Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah. — Maine businesses are expecting losses of just over 50 percent on average this year, while 16 percent think it is extremely unlikely they will open this summer, according to a survey from the Maine Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives. Though not representative of all Maine businesses or the labor force at large, the survey included companies from a variety of sectors. The results suggest that, despite broad access to aid programs, Maine companies have struggled to keep employees on payroll and will be facing significant losses as the year goes on. — Mano en Mano, an organization based in Milbridge that provides education and advocacy for Maine agricultural and aquaculture workers, began raising money for the Estamos Aqui Mutual Aid Fund last month. Mano en Mano has distributed thousands of dollars to hundreds of out-of-work farm workers and their families, many of whom are migrant workers, for emergency assistance to meet needs such as food, rent and utilities during the coronavirus pandemic. — L.L. Bean became the latest retailer to partially reopen its stores Wednesday after it had closed all of them on March 16 to help curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus. The iconic Maine outdoors goods company has opened its Bike, Boat & Ski and Hunting & Fishing stores in downtown Freeport. — A Portland-based maker of bovine health products for the dairy and beef industries, ImmuCell, reported record sales of $4.9 million for the first quarter, up 11 percent from a year earlier. ImmuCell is currently expanding its production facilities because of increased demand. — Bissell Brothers Brewing had a product to sell in late March but suddenly lacked the most direct method of distribution — its taprooms in southern and central Maine. With customers unable to visit its taprooms, Bissell Brothers decided to come to them, creating delivery routes that cover most of northern and southern Maine to bring locally made beer to their doorsteps. — As of early Thursday morning, the coronavirus has sickened 1,390,764 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 84,136 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. — Elsewhere in New England, there have been 5,315 coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts, 3,125 in Connecticut, 462 in Rhode Island, 150 in New Hampshire and 53 in Vermont.
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