Maryland has completed more than one million coronavirus tests and has confirmed more than 80,000 COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, state data show.
In Maryland, a total of 80,172 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 702,661 have tested negative as of Wednesday 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 627, an increase of about 0.79 percent.
Maryland reported an additional 21,021 coronavirus test results since Tuesday, bringing the state’s total testing volume to 1,000,179.
Over the past seven days, an average of 4.49 percent of tests came back positive for COVID-19.
The World Health Organization has recommended that states aim for a positive test rate of 5 percent or lower for 14 days before they begin reopening.
Maryland’s seven-day average rate of positive tests has remained below 5 percent for 27 consecutive days.
The state has hospitalized 11,997 people with coronavirus to date. Of the 505 Marylanders who are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 368 are in acute care and 137 are in intensive care.
Maryland’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased for five straight days, and on Wednesday the number of patients surpassed 500 for the first time in nearly one month, when there were 511 patients on June 25.
The number of acute care patients grew by 15, while intensive care patients rose by six.
The state reported four more deaths due to COVID-19 since Tuesday, totaling 3,276 fatal cases to date. There are also 129 deaths suspected to be related to the virus.
The 14-day average number of newly reported coronavirus has increased for nine straight days, remained above 600 for the past four days, and trended upward since the beginning of July, according to The Baltimore Sun‘s data tracker.
With cases increasing, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. on Tuesday announced that Baltimore County would be requiring people age 2 and older to wear face coverings in all indoor public places starting at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young on Wednesday announced that the city would be suspending indoor dining by the end of this week, after local officials in several of Maryland jurisdictions called on Maryland to close indoor dining statewide.
The city will also require people over the age of 2 to wear face coverings outside of their homes.
During a CSPAN interview on Tuesday, Gov. Larry Hogan said it was too soon for Maryland to bring back restrictions on local businesses.
“Our goal would be to try to keep business open and the economy unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Hogan said.
The governor cited positive trends in the state’s rate of positive tests, hospitalizations, intensive care patients and deaths.
Coronavirus hospitalizations have increased for the past five days. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units has fluctuated for the past two weeks.
As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, there have been 20,958 confirmed cases in Prince George’s County; 16,593 in Montgomery County; 10,153 in Baltimore County; 9,738 in Baltimore City; 6,105 in Anne Arundel County; 3,198 in Howard County; 2,797 in Frederick County; 1,659 in Charles County; 1,472 in Harford County; 1,311 in Carroll County; 1,201 in Wicomico County; 818 in Washington County; 789 in St. Mary’s County; 570 in Cecil County; 503 in Calvert County; 435 in Worcester County; 368 in Caroline County; 340 in Queen Anne’s County; 288 in Dorchester County; 268 in Talbot County; 240 in Allegany County; 221 in Kent County; 110 in Somerset County; and 37 in Garrett County, according to the dashboard.
Maryland has confirmed 2,572 cases in people age 9 or younger; 4,613 in people ages 10-19; 13,113 in people ages 20-29; 15,065 in people ages 30-39; 13,796 in people ages 40-49; 12,210 in people ages 50-59; 8,556 in people ages 60-69; 5,363 in people ages 70-79; and 4,884 in people age 80 or older.
The state has identified 41,899 of the confirmed COVID-19 patients as female and 38,273 as male.
Of the Marylanders who have tested positive for COVID-19, 23,503 have been Black, 20,505 have been Hispanic, 16,887 have been white, 1,532 have been Asian, 3,773 have been another race, and data is not available for the remaining 13,972.
Nationwide, there have been at least 3,902,377 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, including at least 142,090 deaths and 1,182,018 recoveries. More than 47.2 million people in the U.S. have been tested for COVID-19 as of 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to a real-time dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
