May 3 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine

May 3 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine

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Another Mainer has died as health officials confirmed 33 new coronavirus cases Sunday, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

There have now been 1,185 confirmed coronavirus cases across all of Maine’s counties, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 1,152 on Saturday.

The latest death was a male in his 90s from Cumberland County.

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

So far, 183 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 33 people are currently hospitalized, with 18 in critical care and 12 on ventilators, according to the Maine CDC.

Meanwhile, another 706 people have fully recovered from the coronavirus, meaning there are 422 active cases in the state. That’s up from 407 on Saturday.

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

— The pastor of an Orrington church announced Sunday that next week he will open the doors of Calvary Chapel to in-person worship in defiance of an order issued by Gov. Janet Mills to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Graves also said during a drive-in worship service in the church parking lot that the evangelical congregation would be the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit — expected to be filed by the end of the week — challenging the constitutionality of Mills’ executive order that has shuttered houses of worship throughout Maine and limited gatherings to 10 people.

— Hundreds of Mainers gathered outside the state capitol and governor’s residence in Augusta on Saturday in the second protest of coronavirus restrictions the state has seen in recent weeks. According to Augusta Chief of Police Jared Mills, there appeared to be more protestors at this rally than at the first, which happened April 20.

—A Maine bank is planning to provide $200,000 in community grant funding to organizations working for coronavirus relief efforts. Machias Savings Bank said applications for the grants opened on May 1.

— Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation are pushing to include East Coast seafood in purchasing agreements funded by the federal Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Reps. William Keating and Seth Moulton said in a letter Friday to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue that when the U.S. Department of Agriculture begins its purchasing programs intended to assist those the pandemic has affected, the USDA should include domestic seafood.

—Feeling stir crazy? Here’s what you can do to get outside under Maine’s revised stay at home order.

—Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle graduated 190 people during its 55th commencement ceremony held Saturday, May 2. But it wasn’t a typical ceremony with crowds of family and friends dressed in their finery and milling around graduates. The COVID-19 pandemic forced NMCC — as it will many other educational institutions around the state and beyond — to present its first virtual commencement.

— Minority Republicans in the Maine Legislature want to reconvene and end the coronavirus state of emergency declared by Gov. Janet Mills, which would allow all businesses to reopen but would require unlikely Democratic support. On Saturday, the four Republican legislative leaders released a letter to the Democratic presiding officers asking them to call lawmakers back to Augusta to vote on ending the state of emergency declared by Mills in mid-March to manage the virus response.

— A long-hidden note found inside a beer bottle is spreading joy amid the grim pandemic.

——Do you have questions about the plan to reopen Maine’s economy? Ask us here.

— As of Sunday evening, the coronavirus has sickened 1,154,340 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 67,447 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

— Elsewhere in New England, there have been 4,004 coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts, 2,495 in Connecticut, 320 in Rhode Island, 84 in New Hampshire and 52 in Vermont.

Watch: Cancer patient talks about life during coronavirus