State reports 4th straight day of rising rate of cases
Maryland added 630 confirmed cases of the coronavirus to its tally Saturday, the fourth consecutive day of an increasing rate of new cases.
The state also reported 10 new deaths since Friday from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. To date, 107,294 Marylanders have been infected with the disease, and 3,603 have died. The daily rate has increased day over day since 377 cases were added Tuesday.
The 14-day average of COVID-19 cases has fallen nearly every day since Aug. 3, when the figure was at 890 cases. The 14-day average of newly reported deaths has been at seven, the record low, since Aug. 23.
The seven-day average testing positivity rate as of Friday is 3.37%, up from Thursday’s 3.31%. The World Health Organization recommends 14 straight days with a rate of 5% or lower before governments begin relaxing restrictions put in place to reduce the risk of spread.
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center measures Maryland’s positivity rate at 4.3%, one of 22 states, in addition to Washington, D.C., under the recommended 5% threshold. Hopkins and the Maryland Department of Health calculate positivity rates using two different data sets. Maryland considers the number of total tests administered, whereas Hopkins uses the number of people tested.
There are currently 387 people in the state hospitalized with the virus, with 281 of them in acute care and 106 in intensive care. The hospitalizations total as of Saturday is just two above the record low of 385 on July 10.
In the state, Montgomery County has the most confirmed deaths with 780. Prince George’s County followed with 766. Baltimore County has the third most deaths in the state with 577, followed by 440 in Baltimore City and 226 in Anne Arundel County.
Black and Latino populations continue to be disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
Of the cases for which race is known, Black and Latino Marylanders account for about two-thirds of infections in the state, with about 65.9%, whereas white Marylanders have had about 26.7% of cases. White Marylanders account for 42% of coronavirus deaths in the state, with 1,522, compared with 1,479 Black Marylanders, or 41%.
According to the latest U.S. Census data, 58.5% of Marylanders are white, 31.1% are Black and 10.6% are Hispanic or Latino.
When it comes to age, people younger than 40 account for 47.3% of all confirmed cases in the state. But that age group accounts for about 1.9% of the state’s death toll from the virus, which tends to be most deadly for older populations.