Maryland surpassed 60,000 confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday as the number of intensive care patients and hospitalizations due to COVID-19 continued to decline, state data show.
At least 60,197 Marylanders have tested positive for COVID-19, while 332,173 have tested negative as of Thursday morning, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s COVID-19 Case Map Dashboard.
Maryland has conducted at least 463,507 tests to date, including 11,540 test results reported in the past 24 hours.
Over the past seven days, an average of 7.25 percent of COVID-19 tests in Maryland have come back positive, up 0.1 percent from Wednesday. Public health experts recommend a positive test rate of 10 percent or lower.
All Maryland jurisdictions in Maryland except for Prince George’s County have average rates of positive tests below the 10 percent guideline.
Of the state’s total number of confirmed cases, 9,789 people who tested positive for COVID-19 were hospitalized at some point, including 902 who are currently hospitalized.
The number of Marylanders hospitalized due to coronavirus has decreased for 15 consecutive days since reaching 1,338 on May 27, and has followed a downward trend for more than a month.
Of those currently hospitalized, 544 are in acute care and 358 are in intensive care.
The number Marylanders in intensive care units due to COVID-19 has decreased for nine consecutive days since reaching 481 on June 2, and has trended downward for a little less than a month.
A total of 2,750 Marylanders have died from COVID-19, with 31 additional deaths since Wednesday. There are also 125 deaths suspected to be related to coronavirus.
Citing decreases in several coronavirus-related metrics, including hospitalizations, intensive care patients and the average rate of positive tests, Gov. Larry Hogan on Wednesday announced that Maryland would lift more restrictions on certain businesses and activities.
Restaurants will be able to reopen indoor dining at half capacity starting at 5 p.m. on Friday, and gyms will be able to reopen at half capacity next Friday.
As with the lifting of previous restrictions, Hogan is leaving it up to local leaders to decide whether to allow businesses and activities in their jurisdictions to reopen.
But Hogan criticized Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young for his slower reopening of the city. Baltimore City has lifted all restrictions under phase one of the state’s recovery plan, but has not begun phase two.
In order to progress to phase two, Baltimore City is looking for the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths to decrease for 12 days, the rate of positive tests to remain below 15 percent for 14 days, the local testing capacity to reach 1,500 tests per day, and less than 85 percent of combined acute care and intensive care units to be in use, according to the city’s COVID-19 dashboard.
The city has met its own requirements for the rate of positive tests and the combined usage of acute care and intensive care units. However, it still has not reached the benchmarks for new cases, new deaths and daily tests, as of Thursday morning.
As of 10 a.m. Thursday, there have been 16,940 confirmed cases in Prince George’s County; 13,276 in Montgomery County; 6,985 in Baltimore County; 6,509 in Baltimore City; 4,421 in Anne Arundel County; 2,311 in Howard County; 2,202 in Frederick County; 1,235 in Charles County; 998 in Wicomico County; 990 in Harford County; 976 in Carroll County; 573 in St. Mary’s County; 560 in Washington County; 429 in Cecil County; 366 in Calvert County; 278 in Caroline County; 243 in Worcester County; 188 in Kent County; 185 in Allegany County; 178 in Queen Anne’s County; 159 in Dorchester County; 107 in Talbot County; 78 in Somerset County; and 10 in Garrett County, according to the dashboard.
Of Maryland’s confirmed cases, 1,608 have been people age 9 or younger; 2,839 have been people ages 10-19; 8,531 have been people ages 20-29; 11,238 have been people ages 30-39; 10,838 have been people ages 40-49; 9,611 have been people ages 50-59; 6,941 have been people ages 60-69; 4,429 have been people ages 70-79; and 4,162 have been people age 80 or older.
Maryland has identified 31,322 of the confirmed COVID-19 patients as female and 28,875 as male.
Of the Marylanders who have tested positive for COVID-19, 17,345 have been black, 16,293 have been Hispanic, 11,770 have been white, 1,176 have been Asian, 3,094 have been another race, and data is not available for the remaining 10,519.
Nationwide, there have been at least 2,000,600 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, including at least 112,925 deaths and 533,504 recoveries. More than 21.4 million people in the U.S. have been tested for COVID-19 as of 10 a.m. Thursday, according to a real-time dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
