COVID-19 hospitalizations fall below 1,000
Number hasn’t been this low since November
Maryland health officials reported 618 new cases of the coronavirus and 18 more deaths Sunday as the number of people hospitalized due to the virus fell below 1,000 for the first time since November.
State officials have now reported a total of 376,355 cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, since roughly mid-March. In addition, 7,533 have now died due to the disease or complications from it.
Currently, health officials report that 973 people in Maryland are hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19, a decrease of 76 people compared to Saturday.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan wrote on Twitter that Sunday marks the first time since Nov. 16 that the state has seen fewer than 1,000 people hospitalized due to the disease, when state officials reported 985 total hospitalizations amid a surge that saw hospitalizations double in less than three weeks.
The Republican governor also touted continued declines in the state’s coronavirus case rate. The state has reported fewer than 1,000 cases each day this past week except for Friday, comparable to figures from the state health department before the surge that started in November and continued through the winter.
As the state sees its rate of infection decrease, health officials reported another dip in the number of people vaccinated against the virus.
The state completed about 32,000 coronavirus tests over the past 24 hours, an increase of roughly 7,000 tests compared to Saturday’s reported total, while posting about 100 fewer cases.
As the state sees its rate of infection decrease, health officials reported another dip in the number of people being vaccinated against the virus.
The state reported 22,756 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in the past 24 hours, a decrease of 8,785 doses compared to Saturday’s total.
About 1.067 million Marylanders have received either their first or second dose of the vaccine as of Sunday, health officials reported. As of Sunday, a little more than 12% of Maryland’s population of about 6.046 million people have received their first doses of the vaccine and 5.6% have received their second dose.
Rural counties with large populations of residents ages 65 and older continue to lead the state in vaccination rates.
Health officials reported that about 21.7% of Kent County’s population has received their first dose of the vaccine, which leads the state, while 5.978% have received their second dose. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that about 27.1% of the Eastern Shore county’s population of about 19,500 people is 65 or older, compared to the statewide average of 15.9%
The state reported 18.99% of Worcester
County’s population has received their first dose, the second-highest percentage in Maryland, while roughly 9.159% of its residents have received their second dose, which leads the state. About 28.2% of residents from the largely rural county of about 52,000 people are 65 or older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
As for the five-most-populated jurisdictions in the Baltimore metro region — Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City Baltimore County continues to lead in vaccination rate.
Health officials reported about 13.61% of Baltimore County residents have received their first dose and about 7.45% have received their second dose. The jurisdiction is the third-most-populated in the state, with about 827,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Prince George’s County, the state’s second-most-populated jurisdiction with roughly 909,000 people, continues to trail the rest of the state in its vaccination rate, as 6.04% of county residents have received their first dose, roughly half the statewide average. Health officials reported 2.30% of Prince George’s residents have received their second dose.
“We know we need to get this right, and our committee will continue to follow up to ensure we are doing right by city employees.”
Baltimore’s self-imposed deadline to fix a payroll problem that has shorted the paychecks of hundreds of city employees came and went Friday even as officials say they are making significant strides.
In a briefing to the members of Baltimore City Council, the city’s top finance, human resources and information technology officials said Friday that they have corrected all but four of the 19 issues that have plagued the city’s transition to new payroll system, Workday.
To modernize a system previously reliant on paper timesheets, Baltimore moved to Workday in January, but since then hundreds of employees across the city’s 13,000-member workforce have received incomplete paychecks or, in some cases, no pay at all. Other problems have been widely reported, including issues with leave time calculations, allocations to retirement plans and incorrect benefit offerings.
At the height of the payroll problem, city officials documented more than 60 different problems with the transition.
City finance officials have attempted to make employees whole by cutting “off-cycle” checks, supplemental payments to employees when their standard paychecks are too low. Finance officials reported to City Council during a Feb. 10 hearing that the number of off-cycle checks issued has dropped dramatically. But employees from various departments and the unions representing them say many people are still missing money.
Friday was payday for the Baltimore Police Department, one of the agencies hardest hit by the problem. In January, Mike Mancuso, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3, said 800 of his 2,400 members were affected.
Other departments most impacted, including the Fire Department, city Health Department and the Department of Public Works, will have to wait to see if the issue has been corrected. They are due to be paid on Feb. 26.
City officials have blamed most of the problems with the transition on human error, either during the input of hours by employees or the approval process by supervisors. But other problems include issues caused by particular fields that were unnecessary in the city’s previous payroll system but are now critical in Workday, such as an employee’s location and supervisory organization.
During a hearing of the City Council’s Public Safety and Government Operations Committee on Feb. 10, Baltimore finance officials said they expected to clear up several problems by the end of the day Friday.
A Feb. 26 deadline has been set to correct remaining issues, including cutting more off-cycle checks and the “recovery” of money overpaid to some city employees as a result of the transition. That money is expected to be recouped by deductions to future paychecks, city officials have said.
Mark Conway, chairman of the Public Safety and Government Operations Committee
Stefanie Mavronis, spokeswoman for Mayor Brandon Scott, said the mayor remains focused on making sure the problem is permanently resolved.
“I think their progress since the council hearing less than two weeks ago is good, but we want to make sure we’re in a position to know with some confidence that these issues are fully resolved so we continue to move forward,” Mavronis said.
Councilman Mark Conway, chairman of the Public Safety and Government Operations Committee, said he appreciated the responses from city agency heads to a lengthy list of questions about the payroll issue submitted by City Council.
“We know we need to get this right, and our committee will continue to follow up to ensure we are doing right by city employees.”
The switch to Workday is a three-year project budgeted at approximately $44.4 million. Baltimore paid the company directly for the software, which was a $9.7 million piece of the ultimate price tag. City officials have said they expect a $25 million benefit annually as a result of the improved payroll process, particularly due to its controls on overtime.
The heads of the unions representing Baltimore’s workforce have complained about a lack of communication from city finance officials, even as the issue has persisted.
Rich Langford, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 734, which represents the city’s rank-andfile firefighters, said he is concerned the city doesn’t have a feel for the full scope of the problem. Right now, officials are dealing with problems logged by employees who have complained. But there is likely money owed to many more who have not realized it, he said.
“Our members are already down with the problems dealing with COVID every day,” he said. “Everybody understood there’s going to be problems moving to the new system, but now you’re a month and a half into the new system and nothing seems to be correct.”
WASHINGTON — The last time Merrick Garland was nominated by the White House for a job, Republicans wouldn’t even meet with him.
Now, the once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden’s choice for attorney general. Garland, an appeals court judge, is widely expected to sail through his confirmation process, which begins Monday before the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, with bipartisan support.
“Judge Garland’s extensive legal experience makes him well-suited to lead the Department of Justice, and I appreciated his commitment to keep politics out of the Justice Department,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a statement. “Unless I hear something new, I expect to support his nomination before the full Senate.”
Biden’s choice of Garland reflects the president’s goal of restoring the department’s reputation as an independent body. During his four years as president, Donald Trump had insisted that the attorney general must be loyal to him personally, a position that battered the department’s reputation. Garland’s high court nomination by President Barack Obama in 2016 died because the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a hearing.
Garland will inherit a Justice Department that endured a tumultuous time under Trump — rife with political drama and controversial decisions — and abundant criticism from
Democrats over what they saw as the politicizing of the nation’s top law enforcement agencies.
The department’s priorities and messaging are expected to shift drastically in the Biden administration, with a focus more on civil rights, criminal justice overhauls and policing policies in the wake of nationwide protests over the death of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement.
Garland plans to tell senators the department must ensure laws are “fairly and faithfully enforced” and the rights of all Americans are protected, while reaffirming
an adherence to policies to protect its political independence, with the attorney general acting as a lawyer for the American people, not for the president. The Justice Department on late Saturday released a copy of Garland’s opening statement.
Garland will also confront some immediate challenges, including the criminal tax investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter, and calls from some Democrats to investigate Trump, especially after thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress was meeting to certify Biden’s electoral win. Garland, in
his prepared remarks for the Senate committee, calls the insurrection a “heinous attack that sought to distrust a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.”
A special counsel’s inquiry started by William Barr, while he was attorney general, into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation also remains open. It will be up to Garland to decide what to make public from that report.
Garland was at the center of a political firestorm five years ago as part of a Republican gamble that eventually
shaped the future of the Supreme Court. As Obama’s nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who had died in February of 2016, Garland was a moderate choice and generally well liked by senators.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said hours after Scalia’s death that he would not consider any Obama nominee — and that the voters should decide by picking a new president that November. McConnell’s entire caucus went along. Many declined even to meet with Garland, even though some privately questioned the gambit.
It was a huge political risk. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was ahead in most polls and could have easily nominated someone more liberal than Garland had she won the White House. But she did not, Trump did and Republicans were elated as they voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch as a justice a year later.
The bet later paid off handsomely as the Senate remained in Republican hands for the next four years and Trump had the opportunity to nominate two additional conservative justices, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, reshaping the political balance of the court.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., was one of a handful of senators who met with Garland, but didn’t budge from his position that a president should not choose a Supreme Court nominee in an election year. Graham reversed course when his party had the chance, ramming through Coney Barrett’s nomination in record time during a pandemic and weeks before the 2020 election, which his party lost.
Graham said in a tweet that Garland would be a “sound choice” to lead the Justice Department.
“He is a man of great character, integrity, and tremendous competency in the law,” he posted.
Garland, an experienced judge who held senior positions at the Justice Department decades ago, probably will face pressure from civil rights groups to end the federal death penalty after an unprecedented run of capital punishment during the Trump administration. Thirteen federal executions were carried out in six months, and they became superspreaders during the pandemic.