Maryland eclipses 400,000 total COVID-19 cases, nears 8,000 deaths

Phil Davis, The Baltimore Sun
·2 min read

BALTIMORE — More than 400,000 Marylanders have contracted the coronavirus over the past year, and health officials reported more than 1,000 newly confirmed cases for the fourth consecutive day Sunday.

Here’s where the state’s coronavirus indicators stood Sunday.

CASES

Health officials reported 1,007 new cases of the coronavirus Sunday, bringing the state’s case count to 400,023 since officials started tracking the virus last year.

The state has averaged about 907 cases per day over the past two weeks, according to data from the Maryland Department of Health.

DEATHS

The state reported 12 more people have died due to COVID-19 or complications from it, bringing the total number of Marylanders who have died up to 7,985 total over the past year.

As of Sunday, Maryland is averaging roughly 15 deaths per day due to the coronavirus.

HOSPITALIZATIONS

There were two more people hospitalized due to the effects of COVID-19 Sunday compared to the day before, bringing the total number of people currently hospitalized with the disease up to 852 Marylanders, the health department reported.

Currently, 648 people are being treated in acute care units and another 204 people are in intensive care units.

VACCINATIONS

State vaccinators administered 37,586 COVID-19 immunizations Saturday, according to the state health department, a dip compared to the previous two days as officials reported that more than 50,000 vaccines were administered Thursday and Friday.

For the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the state reported that 25,392 people received their first vaccine Saturday and that another 11,028 completed their two-dose regiment. An additional 1,166 people received the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the state reported.

Gov. Larry Hogan wrote on Twitter that the state has averaged 43,924 daily doses over the past week and that about 2.18 million doses of the vaccine have been administered across the state.

A total of 780,190 people, or about 12.9% of Maryland’s population, have been fully vaccinated against the disease either by completing a two-dose regiment or by receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

TESTING POSITIVITY

The state’s average testing positivity rate, which measures roughly the percentage of coronavirus tests returned positive over the past week, rose by .13 percentage points Sunday, up to 4.4%. It’s the 11th straight day that Maryland has reported an increase in its positivity rate.

Kent County continues to have the highest positivity rate in the state, reporting a seven-day average of 8.25% Sunday. The county’s positivity rate jumped by nearly three percentage points to 8.5% on Thursday after officials reported 42 new cases that day. However, officials have reported only three cases over the past three days.

Washington County, a rural county in Western Maryland with about 151,000 people, has the second-highest rate at 6.37%.