More than 1.5 million fully

Maryland adds 1,500 new infections; positivity rate drops

The same day health officials reported Maryland eclipsing 1.5 million people fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the state recorded its fourth consecutive day of more than 1,000 new COVID-19 infections.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations and the state’s testing positivity rate declined slightly.

Here’s a look at where Maryland currently stands amid the pandemic:

Cases

With 1,564 new coronavirus infections, the state’s pandemic case count now stands at 433,359, according to health department data.

Maryland’s case rate has nearly doubled since hitting a trough in early March following a winter surge of the virus, with the number of infections per capita in Baltimore City pacing the state since March 24.

For the week ending Thursday, the state averaged 22.91 cases a day per 100,000 people, up from 12.33 for the week ending March 6. Over the same time period, Baltimore’s rate jumped to 43.35 from 11.82.

That’s almost 25% higher than the county with the next highest case rate, the city’s neighbor, Baltimore County, at 34.93 cases a day per 100,000 people.

It’s a trend that concerns public health officials, who cite the spread of more contagious variants paired with a relaxing of behavior as potentially driving the rise.

Overall, Maryland’s seven-day case rate was almost 165 infections per 100,000 people, above the national rate of about 145, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Deaths

Health officials reported 16 more people died from COVID-19, bringing to 8,342 the number of fatalities since health officials began to track the disease’s effects in March 2020.

Hospitalizations

The number of people hospitalized statewide with the coronavirus decreased by 12 to 1,232 Friday, health department data shows. Of those hospitalized, 296 required intensive care — six more than Thursday.

There have been at least 1,000 people hospitalized for 19 days in a row.

Testing positivity

Maryland’s average testing positivity rate was 5.67% Thursday, down from 5.78% the day before. The rate, an average of tests returned positive over the last seven days, has remained above 5%, the World Health Organization’s benchmark for relaxing restrictions, since

March 29.

About 46,427 test results were returned over the last 24 hours.

Vaccines

More than 1.5 million Marylanders have now been fully inoculated against the coronavirus, either by completing a two-dose vaccine regimen or a single-shot immunization, state health officials reported. About 2.2 million have received at least one vaccine dose.

The state reported 81,252 more vaccines Friday, with 40,369 having received their first dose of the two-shot products made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, and some 40,345 getting their second.

Three days after the state suspended Johnson & Johnson immunizations following a federal recommendation to do so, citing cases of rare blood clots in six of almost 7 million people who received the vaccines, Maryland reported 538 of the one-shot vaccines were administered.

In light of a smaller supply, Maryland averaged 68,831 doses administered daily over the last week.

Vaccines by age:

Almost 78% of Marylanders 65 and older have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, health department data shows.

Vaccines by race:

About 2.93 times more white people have been fully vaccinated in Maryland as Black people, despite those demographic groups accounting for 58.5% and 31%, respectively, of the state’s population.

While about 11% of Maryland residents are Latino, roughly 4.8% of the people who’ve been fully vaccinated in the state, and whose ethnicity was known, are Latino.

Vaccines by county:

Prince George’s County, the state’s second most populous jurisdiction, is the only locality where less than 18% of the population has been fully vaccinated. About 17.7% of Prince George’s 909,000 residents have either completed a two-dose schedule or received a single-shot vaccine.

Not far ahead of it are Somerset County, located on the Eastern Shore, and Charles County, which neighbors Prince George’s in the area around Washington. About 18.16% of Somerset’s approximately 26,000 people have been fully vaccinated; approximately 18.9% of Charles’ 163,000 people have finished their immunizations.

Conversely, Talbot County leads the state in terms of the proportion of its residents who’ve been fully vaccinated. The Eastern Shore county, population 37,000, is the only jurisdiction in the state where more than 35% of residents have been fully vaccinated.

Not far behind are Worcester and Howard counties, the only other jurisdictions in the state where more than 30% of the populations have been fully vaccinated. About 32.9% of Worcester’s 52,000 people and 31% of Howard’s 326,000 residents have completed their vaccinations.