1,084 new cases, 14 fatalities reported

Maryland health officials reported 1,084 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, as well as 14 fatalities blamed on the virus.

Here’s where the state’s indicators stood:

Cases

The daily tally of infections raised the state’s pandemic case count to 428,799 since March 2020.

With more than 1,000 infections reported Tuesday, the state has recorded more than 1,000 cases six of the last seven days, health department data shows.

Deaths

Some 8,298 Marylanders have died from COVID since health officials began to track the disease’s effects.

Hospitalizations

Ten more people were hospitalized with the coronavirus, while 275 of the 1,243 patients in hospitals required intensive care, health department data shows.

More than 1,000 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maryland hospitals everyday for the last 16 days.

For almost all of March, fewer than 1,000 COVID-19 patients were receiving care in hospitals at one time. During that span, as few as 765 people were hospitalized at once.

When infections peaked in mid-January, as many as 1,952 patients were reported hospitalized.

Testing positivity

After increasing slightly Monday, the state’s average testing positivity rate declined Tuesday. The metric, which measures the average number of positive tests over the last seven days, fell to 5.53%, down from 5.6% the day before.

The positivity rate, though, has lingered above the World Health Organization 5% benchmark for relaxing restrictions since March 29. When jurisdictions remain below this marker for two weeks, global health officials consider them in good shape to reopen their economies.

Vaccines

After a smaller output over the weekend, the state reported 55,544 vaccinations Tuesday, health department data shows.

About 21,606 people received their first dose of the two-shot regimens made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, with 25,266 getting their second dose. Meanwhile, 8,672 of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccines made their way into arms in Maryland.

That means more than 1.4 million have been fully vaccinated in the state, either from completing a two-dose regimen or getting the single-shot immunization.

However, those who received Johnson & Johnson’s product are likely to be the last for an undetermined amount of time after the state suspended that vaccine’s use while federal health agencies investigate six cases of blood clots found in recipients. About 6.8 million people in the U.S. have received that inoculation, including more than 170,000 people in Maryland.

It’s unclear how much the development will hinder Maryland’s vaccine rollout, which has seen more than 2.1 million people receive at least one immunization — almost 35% of the state’s population of roughly 6 million — and which has averaged 55,544 vaccines administered daily across the state over the last seven days, according to the health department.

More than 23% of Marylanders have been fully vaccinated.

Vaccines by age

About 76.8% of Maryland residents 65 and older have received at least one dose, health department data shows. Meanwhile, roughly 52% of Marylanders between 50 and 64 years old have gotten at least one dose.

Vaccines by race

About 2.66 times more white people have received a first dose of the vaccine than Black people. Meanwhile, white residents, who make up about 58.5% of the state’s population, have been fully vaccinated about three times as much as Black residents, who account for about 31% of the population.

Maryland’s population is about 11% Latino, yet Latino people have received about 5.3% of all the vaccine doses for which the recipients ethnicity was known. Vaccines by county

The Eastern Shore counties of Talbot (33.9%) and Worcester (30.3%) have seen more than 30% of their populations completely vaccinated, the only jurisdictions in the state to hit that milestone. Talbot has about 37,000 people; Wicomico has roughly 52,000 residents.

Prince George’s and Charles counties continue to lag behind the rest of the state. About 16% of Prince George’s 909,000 residents have completed their immunizations, while roughly 16.8% of Charles’ 163,000 people have been fully vaccinated.