Maryland completes second week with COVID positivity rate below 5%
One day after Maryland surpassed 5 million coronavirus vaccine doses administered, the state on Friday completed its second week with a statewide positivity rate below 5% and reported fewer than 1,000 new cases statewide for the ninth straight day.
Here’s a breakdown of Maryland’s COVID-19 indicators as of Friday, according to the state health department:
Cases
Maryland health officials reported 768 new, confirmed COVID-19 cases Friday.
The daily tally surged as high as 1,840 during April, as health officials feared premature reopenings could complicate the progress of vaccinators statewide.
In total, Maryland has reported 452,035 cases of COVID-19.
Deaths
The state reported 11 more people died from the virus, which has taken 8,642 lives in Maryland.
Hospitalizations
For the sixth straight day, fewer than 1,000 people with COVID-19 are being treated in state hospitals, an improvement from last month, when as many as 1,282 people were hospitalized with the disease at a time.
As of Friday, hospitals were treating 859 COVID-19 patients, down from 901 Thursday.
Positivity Rate
The state’s seven-day average testing positivity rate dipped to 3.53% from 3.66% the day before.
The rate, which measures the percentage of positive tests, has been below 5% for 14 days, an indicator that there’s sufficient testing or a relatively low infection rate.
The World Health Organization recommends that areas remain below 5% for two weeks before lifting virus-related restrictions. Maryland already has done so, and last week Gov. Larry Hogan lifted a requirement that face coverings be worn outdoors in public spaces.
Maryland has completed 41,430 tests in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to nearly 9.9 million over the course of the pandemic.
This story will be updated.
