The difference between the average rates of positive tests for Marylanders younger and older than 35 years old is shrinking, according to data that the state released today.
The average rate of positive tests is 3.06 percent for Marylanders older than 35 and 4.78 percent for Marylanders younger than 35–the first time that the latter group’s average has fallen below 5 percent during the pandemic.
For Marylanders overall, an average of 3.62 percent of tests over the last seven days came back positive for COVID-19.
Maryland health officials last week began reporting a breakdown of positivity rates by Marylanders older and younger than 35 years old.
Although older Marylanders had tested positive for COVID-19 at a higher rate than younger Marylanders at the beginning of the pandemic, the roles switched in early May.
Since then, Marylanders younger than 35 have maintained a higher average positive test rate than Marylanders older than 35.
Both groups’ averages declined from May through June. The average positivity rate for older Marylanders has continued to decrease or flatten, while younger Marylanders’ average increased slightly throughout most of July.
Over the past week and a half, however, the average rate of positive tests for younger Marylanders has decreased again, narrowing the gap between the two age groups.
On July 27, the gap between younger and older Marylanders’ average positivity rates was 3.04 percentage points.
A week later on Aug. 3, the gap decreased to 2.48 percentage points.
Today, the gap has narrowed further to 1.72 percentage points.
At least 96,258 Marylanders have tested positive for COVID-19, while 960,552 have tested negative as of Monday morning, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s COVID-19 Case Map Dashboard.
The state’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 755, an increase of 0.79 percent.
Maryland has completed a total of 1,468,470 coronavirus tests to date, with 29,731 test results reported in the past 24 hours.
Of the state’s total number of confirmed cases, 13,247 people who tested positive for COVID-19 were hospitalized at some point, including 534 who are currently hospitalized.
Of those currently hospitalized, 415 are in acute care and 119 are in intensive care.
The number of acute care patients grew by 18 while the number of intensive care patients declined by nine, marking a net increase of nine more patients hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to Sunday.
A total of 3,454 Marylanders have died from COVID-19, with six additional deaths reported since Sunday. There are also 137 deaths suspected to be related to coronavirus.
As of 10 a.m. Monday, there have been 23,832 confirmed cases in Prince George’s County; 18,489 in Montgomery County; 13,400 in Baltimore County; 12,704 in Baltimore City; 7,416 in Anne Arundel County; 3,881 in Howard County; 3,082 in Frederick County; 2,040 in Charles County; 1,994 in Harford County; 1,554 in Carroll County; 1,348 in Wicomico County; 1,018 in Washington County; 999 in St. Mary’s County; 707 in Calvert County; 706 in Cecil County; 694 in Worcester County; 453 in Caroline County; 434 in Queen Anne’s County; 402 in Talbot County; 375 in Dorchester County; 299 Allegany County; 243 in Kent County; 139 in Somerset County; and 49 in Garrett County, according to the dashboard.
Of Maryland’s confirmed cases, 3,328 have been people age 9 or younger; 6,298 have been people ages 10-19; 16,891 have been people ages 20-29; 18,096 have been people ages 30-39; 16,105 have been people ages 40-49; 14,351 have been people ages 50-59; 9,842 have been people ages 60-69; 6,081 have been people ages 70-79, and 5,266 have been people age 80 or older.
Maryland has identified 50,739 of the confirmed COVID-19 patients as female and 45,519 as male.
Of the Marylanders who have tested positive for COVID-19, 29,964 have been Black, 23,812 have been Hispanic, 20,967 have been white, 1,729 have been Asian, 4,198 have been another race, and data is not available for the remaining 15,588.
Nationwide, there have been at least 5,047,401 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, including at least 162,950 deaths and 1,656,864 recoveries. More than 61.7 million people in the U.S. have been tested for COVID-19 as of 10 a.m. Monday, according to a real-time dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
