At least 50,988 Marylanders have tested positive for COVID-19, while 233,530 have tested negative as of Friday 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 1,279, an increase of about 2.6 percent.
Over the past seven days, an average of 12 percent of coronavirus tests in Maryland have come back positive, down 0.4 percentage points from yesterday. To date, Maryland has completed at least 328,516 tests for about 284,518 people, with 11,719 more tests results reported since Thursday.
Gov. Larry Hogan on Wednesday said state officials are monitoring the state’s seven-day rolling positivity rate, in addition to coronavirus related hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions that they had already been examining, as they evaluate the state’s recovery from COVID-19.
If those metrics show positive trends into next week, Hogan said Maryland could begin the second phase of the state’s recovery plan.
Public health experts recommend a positive test rate of 10 percent or lower. If a higher percentage of tests is comes back positive, more tests need to be conducted to capture the full spread of the disease.
Hogan on Wednesday announced that Maryland would be able to move forward with easing some more coronavirus-related restrictions, such as resuming outdoor dining at restaurants and reopening pools at limited capacity, starting at 5 p.m. on Friday.
Since that announcement, some local leaders have said they will allow their jurisdictions to resume some or all of the activities permitted under phase one of the state’s recovery plan.
Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young on Thursday said Baltimore City restaurants will be allowed to resume outdoor dining with a permit.
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said his county would be fully aligning itself with all of the phase one measures allowed under Hogan’s orders.
“As I’ve said, a patchwork approach to reopening creates confusion for our residents, it puts businesses on different playing fields, and it is much less effective from a public health perspective,” Olszewski said during a press conference Thursday.
So far, 13 jurisdictions have seven-day average positivity rates below public health experts’ 10 percent recommendation: Allegany, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Dorchester, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, Talbot, Washington and Wicomico counties.
The other 11 jurisdictions–Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, Charles, Frederick, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George’s, St. Mary’s and Worcester counties and Baltimore City–remain above that mark.
A total of 2,348 Marylanders have died from COVID-19, with 41 additional deaths since Thursday. There are also 118 deaths suspected to be related to coronavirus.
Of the state’s total number of confirmed cases, 8,479 people who tested positive for COVID-19 were hospitalized at some point, including 1,296 who are currently hospitalized.
Of those currently hospitalized, 789 are in acute care and 507 are in intensive care.
As of 10 a.m. Friday, there have been 14,773 confirmed cases in Prince George’s County; 11,035 in Montgomery County; 5,819 in Baltimore County; 5,426 in Baltimore City; 3,643 in Anne Arundel County; 1,868 in Howard County; 1,856 in Frederick County; 1,056 in Charles County; 931 in Wicomico County; 861 in Carroll County; 854 in Harford County; 460 in St. Mary’s County; 441 in Washington County; 364 in Cecil County; 329 in Calvert County; 248 in Caroline County; 206 in Worcester County; 177 in Allegany County; 167 in Kent County; 160 in Queen Anne’s County; 140 in Dorchester County; 91 in Talbot County; 73 in Somerset County; and 10 in Garrett County, according to the dashboard.
Of Maryland’s confirmed cases, 1,224 have been people age 9 or younger; 2,191 have been people ages 10-19; 7,033 have been people ages 20-29; 9,460 have been people ages 30-39; 9,212 have been people ages 40-49; 8,354 have been people ages 50-59; 5,996 have been people ages 60-69; 3,877 have been people ages 70-79; and 3,641 have been people age 80 or older.
Maryland has identified 26,527 of the confirmed COVID-19 patients as female and 24,461 as male.
Of the Marylanders who have tested positive for COVID-19, 14,613 have been black, 12,610 have been Hispanic, 9,869 have been white, 948 have been Asian, 2,478 have been another race, and data is not available for the remaining 10,470.
Nationwide, there have been at least 1,722,419 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, including at least 101,622 deaths and 399,991 recoveries. More than 15.6 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.
