The gap between the average positive test rates for Marylanders older and younger than 35 years old has narrowed to less than 1 percentage point, state data show.
The seven-day average rate of positive tests on Aug. 19, the most recent day that state data is available, was 3.79 percent for Marylanders younger than 35 and 2.97 percent for Marylanders older than 35–a difference of 0.82 percentage points.
The difference between older and younger Marylanders’ average positive test rates has not been lower than 1 percentage point since the two groups’ average rates were separated by 0.99 percentage points on May 4.
The gap between the two group’s rates of positive tests has been shrinking for about the past month.
Although older Marylanders held a higher rate of positive tests at the beginning of the pandemic, younger Marylanders took the lead in early May and have maintained a higher positive test rate since then.
Over the past month, the gap between the two groups’ positive test rates has been narrowing.
On July 29, the average rates of positive tests for Marylanders younger and older than 35 were separated by 2.8 percentage points.
A week later on Aug. 5, the difference between the two groups’ averages was 2.28 percentage points.
That gap narrowed to 1.6 percentage points on Aug. 12, and it sat at 0.82 percentage points yesterday.
Maryland has confirmed at least 102,229 coronavirus cases to date, while 1,085,447 residents have tested negative as of Thursday morning, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s COVID-19 Case Map Dashboard.
The state’s coronavirus caseload rose by 580, an increase of about 0.6 percent.
Maryland has completed 1,693,571 coronavirus tests to date, with 18,041 test results reported in the past 24 hours.
Over the last seven days, an average of 3.29 percent of the state’s COVID-19 tests have come back positive.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Maryland has hospitalized 13,785 people with COVID-19, including 455 who are currently hospitalized.
Of those currently hospitalized, 348 are in acute care and 107 are in intensive care.
The number of acute care patients decreased by 20 while the number of intensive care patients stayed the same, marking a net decrease of 20 fewer people hospitalized with coronavirus compared to Wednesday.
A total of 3,531 Marylanders have died from COVID-19, with nine additional deaths reported since Wednesday. There are also 138 deaths suspected to be related to coronavirus.
As of 10 a.m. Thursday, there have been 25,058 confirmed cases in Prince George’s County; 19,264 in Montgomery County; 14,327 in Baltimore County; 13,708 in Baltimore City; 7,809 in Anne Arundel County; 4,148 in Howard County; 3,289 in Frederick County; 2,225 in Harford County; 2,224 in Charles County; 1,625 in Carroll County; 1,424 in Wicomico County; 1,170 in Washington County; 1,069 in St. Mary’s County; 755 in Calvert County; 744 in Cecil County; 741 in Worcester County; 498 in Queen Anne’s County; 472 in Caroline County; 430 in Talbot County; 416 in Dorchester County; 358 Allegany County; 251 in Kent County; 164 in Somerset County; and 60 in Garrett County, according to the dashboard.
Of Maryland’s confirmed cases, 3,643 have been people age 9 or younger; 6,959 have been people ages 10-19; 18,168 have been people ages 20-29; 19,138 have been people ages 30-39; 17,017 have been people ages 40-49; 15,158 have been people ages 50-59; 10,385 have been people ages 60-69; 6,355 have been people ages 70-79; and 5,406 have been people age 80 or older.
Maryland has identified 53,976 of the confirmed COVID-19 patients as female and 48,253 as male.
Of the Marylanders who have tested positive for COVID-19, 32,651 have been Black, 24,952 have been Hispanic, 22,735 have been white, 1,869 have been Asian, 4,468 have been another race, and data is not available for the remaining 15,554.
Nationwide, there have been at least 5,530,655 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, including at least 173,204 deaths and 1,925,049 recoveries. More than 69.3 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.
