Maryland moves toward 2 million fully vaccinated in wake of VP Kamala Harris’ Baltimore visit

One day after Vice President Kamala Harris visited Baltimore to tout the nation’s — and Maryland’s — coronavirus vaccination campaign during her and President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office, the state pushed closer to having fully vaccinated almost 2 million residents.

Several other key coronavirus measures showed progress, as Harris and several Maryland leaders signaled the nation was beginning to emerge from the public health crisis.

Here’s how several Maryland Department of Health pandemic indicators looked Friday:

Cases

The state reported 942 new coronavirus infections Friday, bringing to 447,401 the case count since health officials began to track the pandemic in March 2020.

The state has averaged 1,003 new infections over the last two weeks, the lowest rate since March 27.

Deaths

Twenty-five more Marylanders died from COVID-19. The respiratory disease has claimed 8,555 casualties in the state throughout the pandemic.

Hospitalizations

Some 1,042 remained hospitalized with the coronavirus in Maryland, 38 fewer than Thursday. Of those, 269 required intensive care, an increase of two from the day before.

The number of people hospitalized has remained above 1,000 since March 29.

Testing positivity

The state’s average testing positivity rate was 3.72% Friday, down from 3.77% the day before.

The rate, which measures the average number of tests returned positive over the last week, has remained below 5% for seven days. The World Health Organization recommends jurisdictions stay under 5% for two weeks before easing restrictions.

Maryland reported 35,916 coronavirus tests returned Thursday, down from roughly 39,000 Wednesday.

Vaccinations

About 1.98 million people have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in Maryland, where more than 2.6 million have received at least one dose of vaccine.

The state reported 70,032 new vaccinations Friday, with 27,612 receiving their first dose of two-dose immunizations made by Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna. Approximately 39,937 more got second doses, while 2,483 were shot with Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine.

Maryland last reported more than 70,000 immunizations in a day on April 22. An average of 56,776 vaccinations have been reported daily statewide over the last seven days.

Vaccines by age:

Almost 81% of Marylanders 60 and older have gotten at least one vaccine dose, along with about 64% of residents between 50 and 64 years old and almost 48% of people between the ages of 18 and 49.

Despite just the Pfizer vaccine having been authorized for use in people under 18, state data shows 32% of 16- and 17-year-olds in Maryland have gotten at least one shot.

Vaccines by race:

About 2.75 times more white people have been fully vaccinated than Black people in Maryland, though those demographic groups account for 58.5% and 31% of the state’s population. However, roughly 2.5 times more white residents than Black residents have received their preliminary immunizations, showing the gap continues to narrow.

Approximately 11% of Marylanders identify as Latino, while about 5.5% of those fully vaccinated and whose ethnicity was recorded are Latino. That demographic group has received about 7% of the first doses for which ethnicity was known.

Vaccines by county:

More than 35% of the population have been fully vaccinated in five counties: Talbot (43.3%), Worcester (39.5%), Howard (39.4%), Kent (36.6%) and Montgomery (36.5%).

Montgomery, Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction, and Howard are centrally located in the Washington suburbs and Baltimore metro area, respectively. Kent, the least populated locality, Talbot and Worcester are all on the Eastern Shore. All are majority white, though Montgomery and Howard are more diverse.

Somerset (21.7%), Cecil (23.5%), Prince George’s (24.5%), Queen Anne’s (24.6%) and Charles (26.06%) have recorded the five smallest shares of their populations to have been completely immunized.

Prince George’s has 909,000 residents, the second largest population, while Somerset has about 26,000, the second smallest. Like Charles, Prince George’s is in the Washington area and is majority Black. Queen Anne’s and Cecil are both almost 90% white. Somerset is about 54% white.

Along with Allegany (29.3%), Caroline (30.5%) and Washington (32.2%), Somerset (27.5%) and Cecil (31.1%) are among the jurisdictions which have seen the smallest proportions of their populations get at least one dose of the vaccine. All but Somerset are more than 80% white.