MONMOUTH, Maine (AP) — Maine’s agricultural fair season is back after a year off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The agricultural fairs, which celebrate Maine’s food producers and rural heritage, run from June to October every year. They started back up again on June 18 this year.

The 26 fairs include events such as Common Ground Country Fair and Fryeburg Fair that draw thousands of people to rural Maine. The next fair on the schedule is the Monmouth Fair, which runs from Wednesday to Saturday. Organizers describe it as a “friendly family agricultural fair with midway, animal exhibits, crafts and animal pull events.”

All of the fairs were canceled last year. Organizers have asked the public to be ready for pandemic protocols to be in place at some of the events this year.

In other pandemic news in Maine:

THE NUMBERS

The number of daily new COVID-19 cases continued to fall.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 69.71 new cases per day on June 5 to 33.71 new cases per day on June 19. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths in Maine did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 2.00 deaths per day on June 5 to 1.29 deaths per day on June 19.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there have been 854 deaths and more than 68,000 cases of the virus in the state since the start of the pandemic. About 65% of the eligible population of Maine has had its final dose of coronavirus vaccine.

–Associated Press

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