Anne Arundel County adds 138 new coronavirus cases

Test positivity rate higher than that of state as a whole

Anne Arundel County confirmed 138 new coronavirus cases and two new deaths Sunday, according to state health data. Maryland confirmed 1,669 new coronavirus cases and eight deaths.

Numbers released Sunday morning show the county has reached 39,483 confirmed cases and 557 deaths. Another 14 people may have died from the disease, but a lab test was never performed. Maryland now has 417,329 confirmed cases and 8,165 deaths.

Anne Arundel’s seven-day average rate of positive cases is 6.92%, higher than the state’s 5.9%. The seven-day average case rate per 100,000 people is about 22.47 for the county. The case rate is a metric of infections per 100,000 people, averaged over seven days, to judge how quickly and widely the virus is spreading in the county.

Statewide, 1,131 people are currently hospitalized with 256 patients in the ICU and 875 patients in acute care.

As of Sunday, the Maryland Department of Health had administered 1,857,984 first doses of coronavirus vaccines, and 1,020,855-second doses to residents. The state is in Phase 2B.

The county is now vaccinating people in Phase 2B, which includes people aged 16 and older who have disabilities or underlying medical conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 illness.

The county will continue vaccinating people covered under all previous phases, including everyone older than 60 and various essential workers.

Phase 2C, which includes everyone 55 and older as well as essential workers, will begin on April 13. Everyone not covered in a previous category will be eligible for the vaccine on April 27.

To sign up for vaccination, visit aacounty. org/covidvax.

The county’s hospitalization rate and cases by ZIP code are not updated on Sundays.