Maryland confirmed 930 cases of coronavirus on Friday, the largest number reported in a single day in nearly two months, according to data that the state released today.
The last time the state reported a daily caseload this large was May 30, when there were 1,027 new cases.
Within the last 24 hours, state health officials reported 24,220 test results. Over the last week, 4.69 percent of coronavirus tests in the state have come back positive. The seven-day rate of positive tests has remained below 5 percent since June 25.
A total of 81,766 Marylanders have tested positive for coronavirus, while 722,584 have tested negative as of Friday morning, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s COVID-19 Case Map Dashboard.
The state has completed a total of 1,040,442 coronavirus tests to date.
Maryland has hospitalized a total of 12,119 people for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 533 who are currently hospitalized.
Coronavirus hospitalizations grew slightly by five patients, marking the seventh straight day of rising hospitalizations.
Of the COVID-19 patients who are currently hospitalized, 390 are in acute care and 143 are in intensive care.
The number of acute care patients decreased by five, while the number of patients in intensive care increased by 10.
State health officials in June directed county leaders to increase testing efforts in their jurisdictions to test 10 percent of their populations.
All but two of Maryland’s jurisdictions have met that 10 percent goal so far. Calvert and Cecil counties have tested 8.8 percent and 8.5 percent of their residents, respectively.
Of the state’s six largest jurisdictions, Baltimore City has tested the greatest percentage of residents, at 16.3 percent. The city is followed by Baltimore County with 13.7 percent, Prince George’s County with 13.3 percent, Montgomery County with 13.3 percent, Howard County with 13 percent, and Anne Arundel County with 11.4 percent.
Local health officials in those six jurisdictions on Monday sent a letter to Maryland Deputy Health Secretary Fran Phillips, calling on Maryland to resume restrictions on bars, restaurants and other establishments.
But Gov. Larry Hogan on Wednesday said he would not heighten restrictions at this time, and instead he called on local executives to better enforce existing orders.
Starting at 5 p.m. today, Anne Arundel County will suspend late-night indoor hours for bars and restaurants, impose stricter penalties for violating coronavirus restrictions, and take other actions in response to rising rates of transmission and positive tests in the county.
Baltimore City has implemented new guidelines, which will also go into effect at 5 p.m. today, to restrict indoor dining altogether and require people age 2 and older to wear a face covering in public.
Baltimore County on Thursday began requiring all people age 2 and older to wear a face covering in all indoor public spaces.
The state reported 12 more deaths due to COVID-19 since Thursday, bringing the total to 3,293 fatal cases. There are also 129 deaths suspected to be related to coronavirus.
As of 10 a.m. Friday, there have been 21,210 confirmed cases in Prince George’s County; 16,768 in Montgomery County; 10,520 in Baltimore County; 10,001 in Baltimore City; 6,229 in Anne Arundel County; 3,271 in Howard County; 2,833 in Frederick County; 1,695 in Charles County; 1,540 in Harford County; 1,337 in Carroll County; 1,219 in Wicomico County; 833 in Washington County; 805 in St. Mary’s County; 583 in Cecil County; 515 in Calvert County; 468 in Worcester County; 374 in Caroline County; 350 in Queen Anne’s County; 303 in Dorchester County; 289 in Talbot County; 244 in Allegany County; 224 in Kent County; 114 in Somerset County; and 41 in Garrett County, according to the dashboard.
Of the Marylanders who have tested positive for coronavirus, 2,641 have been people age 9 or younger; 4,750 have been people ages 10-19; 13,574 have been people ages 20-29; 15,387 have been people ages 30-39; 14,013 have been people ages 40-49; 12,395 have been people ages 50-59; 8,678 have been people ages 60-69; 5,419 have been people ages 70-79; and 4,909 have been people age 80 or older.
Maryland has identified 42,744 of the confirmed COVID-19 patients as female and 39,022 as male.
Of the state’s confirmed coronavirus cases, 24,310 have been Black, 20,795 have been Hispanic, 17,486 have been white, 1,566 have been Asian, 3,823 have been another race, and data is not available for the remaining 13,786.
Nationwide, there have been at least 4,039,523 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, including at least 144,308 deaths and 1,233,269 recoveries. More than 48.7 million people in the U.S. have been tested for COVID-19 as of 10 a.m. Friday, according to a real-time dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
