State reports 2,643 additional confirmed cases, 26 new deaths
Maryland reported 2,643 new cases of the coronavirus and 26 more deaths Sunday as the state’s rural jurisdictions continue to report higher rates of infection than the rest of the state.
Sunday’s additions bring the state’s total to 215,027 cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, and 4,685 people who have died due to the disease or complications from it since officials began tracking the virus in March.
As of Sunday, 1,576 people in Maryland are hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19, a decrease of 22 patients compared with Saturday.
However, that decrease is entirely attributable to the 36 people who were released from acute care units in the past 24 hours. By comparison, 14 more people were placed in intensive care units for a total of 393 patients, the first time the state was near 400 ICU patients since the beginning of June.
The statewide seven-day average testing positivity rate is at 8.14% as of Sunday, up 0.1 percentage point over Saturday.
Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus resource center, which calculates the rate differently from the state, has the state’s positivity rate at 6.55%.
Maryland is one of 45 states to have a positivity rate above 5%. The World Health Organization recommends jurisdictions get below that mark before relaxing restrictions on businesses and social gatherings.
Statistics show that several of the state’s rural areas — particularly in Western Maryland — represent a disproportionate number of Sunday’s cases and are driving the state’s average positivity rate higher in recent weeks.
And while the state didn’t reach the record-breaking highs of the past two days that saw Maryland report nearly 7,000 new cases in 48 hours, officials reported 5,656 fewer completed cases than compared with Saturday.
Of the seven counties that have over a 10% seven-day average positivity rate, only Prince George’s County (10.09%) has a population of more than 150,000 people.
On Sunday, Prince George’s, which has roughly 910,000 people reported 422 new COVID-19 cases for a total of 44,057 since mid-March, the second-most cases in the state behind Montgomery County, which reported 460 new cases but stayed below the state average positivity rate at 6.57% as of Sunday.
The three counties in Western Maryland that border West Virginia and Pennsylvania — Allegany (18.81%), Garrett (18.14%) and Washington (10.17%) — continue to show higher rates of infection than more populated areas.
The three counties reported a combined 272 cases Sunday, representing about 10.29% of all Sunday’s cases. For comparison, the combined population of roughly 250,000 people from the three counties only represents about 4.15% of the more than 6 million who reside in Maryland.
In addition, a number of rural counties in Eastern Maryland are starting to see an increase in daily cases.
Cecil County, the northeastern county of about 103,000 people that borders southern Delaware, is now reporting a seven-day average positivity rate of 11.86%, more than 3 percentage points higher than the state average. The county has reported 1,010 of its 2,391 coronavirus cases since Nov. 1, including 44 new cases Sunday.
Sparsely populated Somerset County is still seeing a high rate of infection after reporting 20 new cases Sunday. The jurisdiction of roughly 25,000 people has reported 732 cases since Nov. 1, about 62.51% of its total 1,171 cases reported since mid-March.
White Marylanders continue to represent a greater portion of newly reported coronavirus cases as jurisdictions with predominantly white populations continue to show higher rates of infection than more diverse jurisdictions in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., metropolitan corridor
Maryland officials reported that 1,093 of Sunday’s 2,643 cases were diagnosed in white residents, the most of any demographic in the state.
As of Sunday, 66,317 coronavirus cases were diagnosed in white residents, more than any other race or ethnicity. Of the five counties with the highest rates of infection per 100,000 people — Allegany, Somerset, Garrett, Washington and Frederick counties — only Somerset has a Black population (41.5%) comparable to the statewide Black population of 31.1% of Marylanders.
The other four counties are 71% white or greater, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Maryland’s five most populated jurisdictions — Montgomery, Prince George’s Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties along with Baltimore City — reported a combined 1,698 cases Sunday, or about 64.25% of the state’s overall total. This is in line with the population of the region, as about 65.52% of Maryland’s population lives in these five jurisdictions.
Sunday’s statistics show a more equal spread among various age groups as officials say they’re fearing a second surge after millions of Americans ignored the guidance of public health experts and traveled on Thanksgiving.
While the state’s 20- to 29year-old residents led the state with 480 cases reported among the various age demographics, officials reported 426 cases among 50- to 59-year-old Marylanders, the second-highest count in the state.
Of the 26 people who died due to the disease, the state reported that 13 were at least 80 years old while an additional four people 40 to 49 died due to the disease.