I've been tracking the numbers as best I can. Hospitalizations have fluctuated between 150 or so and 175 or so for a couple of months. Not as bad as the last big peak, but still not good. Deaths are still occurring regularly but I don't have a good handle on the rate.

US CDC just yesterday lowered most counties in Maine's *community transmission level* rating from high to substantial although several are still high. That is a measure of infections or spread. The *community level* which is a measure of hospital strain is rated low in most counties by US CDC.

People confuse these two metrics all the time. It doesn't seem to me by the numbers that hospitalizations have gone down significantly plus spread is still high or substantial in every county except Washington County, but that's how it's being interpreted by the *community level* metric.