Maine is reporting another 23 COVID-19 deaths and a slight uptick in hospitalizations Friday.

The state Center for Disease Control and Prevention received 12,348 new coronavirus test results Thursday, with a 13.2% positivity rate, both among the lowest reported this year. 

The state is still working through analyzing a backlog of tens of thousands of COVID-19 test results for their official count, but reported 1,414 more cases Friday. 

There are currently 355 people hospitalized with the virus in Maine, up slightly from earlier this week but still much lower than at other points this year. Eighty-two people are in critical care and 36 are on ventilators. 

All but four of the people most recently reported to have died of the coronavirus were male. Three each were from Penobscot, Cumberland, Oxford and Kennebec counties. Two were from York County, and the rest represented Waldo, Aroostook, Piscataquis, Hancock, Somerset and Lincoln counties. Lincoln County has had Maine’s fewest COVID-19 deaths, now at 21.

The recent deaths include seven people over 80, four in their 70s, six in their 60s, five in their 50s and one in their 20s. It marks only the fifth death to date in that age group. 

People under age 20 have accounted for nearly a quarter of COVID-19 cases in Maine to date, while people in their 20s account for about 16%. Only two people under age 20 have died. 

As of Thursday, Maine’s coronavirus contact tracing program was monitoring 142 people who may have been exposed to the virus, while nearly 200,000 people were in the queue for enrollment in the tracing program. 

The state will end its COVID-19 contact tracing efforts next Tuesday. Officials said this week that the omicron variant spreads too quickly for that approach to be useful. Contact tracing will continue in contained settings, such as jails, nursing homes and hospitals, and for other slower-moving diseases where it has long been common practice.