The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maine continued to decline on Sunday, state public health authorities reported.

A total of 222 patients were hospitalized with the coronavirus, down from 231 on Saturday, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. By comparison, there were 436 patients in Maine hospitals with the infectious disease on Jan. 13.

Of Sunday’s 222 hospitalized patients, 52 were in critical care units and 23 on ventilators. The number of critical care patients also dropped by 11 from Saturday.

The Maine CDC did not report any new deaths from the virus on Sunday. Maine’s total death toll since the pandemic began stands at 1,960.

State health officials have said the majority of those severely sick with the coronavirus in hospitals, and those who have died, were not vaccinated.

On Sunday the Maine CDC added 4,597 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 to the pandemic total as health officials work to clear a backlog of positive tests submitted during the omicron surge. The new confirmed cases are not a one-day count, but part of the backlog.

Typically the state does not add cases to its cumulative pandemic totals on Sundays, Mondays and holidays, Robert Long, spokesman for the Maine Department Health and Human Services, said Sunday in a press release. “But we expect the backlog work to add cases this holiday weekend,” he said.

In recent days the state launched a system to automate a portion of the backlog-clearing process.  As a result, for several days starting last Tuesday, there has been a significant increase in the day-to-day tallies of total cases, confirmed cases and probable cases.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Maine since the beginning of pandemic now stands at 218,367, according to the Maine CDC.

Meanwhile, the number of Mainers who are fully vaccinated continues to rise. Of the state’s total population, the Maine CDC reported Saturday that 73.31 percent, or 985,400 people, are fully vaccinated. It said that 76.94 percent of those who are eligible for shots – those age 5 and older– are fully vaccinated.

As it has been, Cumberland County has the most fully vaccinated population of Maine’s 16 counties, at 83.92 percent, according to state data. Somerset County has the lowest fully vaccinated population: 59.93 percent, The fully vaccinated population in Androscoggin County totals 66.23 percent; in Oxford, 63.05 percent; and in Lincoln, 78.20 percent.