Death toll tops 8K; 800K fully vaccinated

More than 8,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Maryland, health officials reported Tuesday, the same day the state surpassed 800,000 people fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Eligibility for COVID-19 immunizations opened up to all Marylanders over 60 on Tuesday. Gov. Larry Hogan also announced the state would be doubling the number of mass vaccination sites in the coming weeks.

Here’s where the key pandemic indicators stood.

Cases

Maryland health officials reported 722 new coronavirus infections Tuesday, the second consecutive day the state added fewer than 1,000 cases following four days of surpassing 1,000. The state’s pandemic case count stands 401,427.

Deaths

With 11 more residents reported dead from COVID-19, the death toll in Maryland reached 8,010.

Hospitalizations

Twenty-nine more people were hospitalized with the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, meaning 895 patients are receiving hospital care. Of those hospitalized, 200 needed intensive care, five fewer than the day before. Hospitalizations have climbed for five days in a row, with almost 37,000 people having been hospitalized in Maryland since the pandemic started.

Testing positivity

After declining for the first time in about 10 days, the state’s testing positivity rate increased. The rate, which measures the average number of COVID-19 tests returned positive over the past week, was 4.45%, up 0.08 percentage points compared with the day before. The state reported about 13,000 tests were completed Monday, down from the 17,000 completed a day earlier.

Vaccinations

About 36,594 coronavirus immunizations were administered Monday across Maryland, up from the roughly 31,500 shot into arms Sunday, according to Maryland Department of Health data. Of those who received vaccines over the past 24 hours, 25,822 got their first dose of the two-shot immunizations made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Some 10,772 completed their immunizations either by receiving their second dose or by getting jabbed with the single-shot vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson.

About 801,385 people have been fully vaccinated in Maryland, about 13% of the state’s more than 6 million residents.

More than 1.4 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine in the state, which has seen an average of 43,882 immunizations administered daily over the past week.

Vaccines by age:

With vaccines now available to people 60 and older in Maryland, health department data shows 67% of those over 65 have received at least one immunization.

Vaccines by race:

About 3.6 times more white people have been fully vaccinated in Maryland as Black people. Those demographic groups make up about 58.5% and 31% of the state’s population.

Meanwhile, just 3.8% of the people fully vaccinated whose ethnicity was recorded were Latino, according to state data. About 11% of Maryland’s population is Latino.

Vaccines by county:

Located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Kent and Talbot counties are the only jurisdictions in the state that have seen more than 20% of their populations fully vaccinated. About 21.2% of Kent’s 19,000 people have completed their immunization regimens, while about 20.3% of Talbot’s approximately 37,000 have been fully immunized.

Lagging behind the rest of the state are Prince George’s and Charles counties, both of which are located in the Washington area and are majority Black. About 7.6% of Prince George’s 909,000 residents have finished with their immunizations, while about 8.9% of Charles’ 163,000 people have done the same.

Baltimore has fully vaccinated a larger share of its population than four other counties, including Charles and Prince George’s. About 11.2% of Baltimore’s 593,000 residents, the majority of whom are Black, have completed their immunizations. That’s more than Cecil and Somerset counties, which have seen 10.5% and 10.8% of their respective populations finish their vaccination regimens.

Variants

More than 300 cases of COVID-19 in Maryland have been caused by mutations of the coronavirus first detected in other countries, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Sunday, there were 317 variant cases identified in Maryland, up from 272 on Thursday, the last time the CDC updated its data. Of those infections, 291 were caused by the variant first found in the United Kingdom, 25 by the strain initially identified in South Africa and one by the mutation traced to Brazil.