COVID-19 In Maryland: 4,000 New Cases As Hospitalizations & Positivity Slide
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A little more than 3,000 Marylanders are hospitalized with COVID-19 as hospitalizations and the statewide positivity rate continue to dip, according to data released Wednesday by the state Department of Health.
Hospitalizations fell by nine over the past 24 hours, bringing the total of COVID-19 patients in Maryland to 3,051. Of those hospitalized, 2,480 are adults in acute care and 536 are adults in intensive care. Twenty-nine children are in acute care and six are in the ICU.
With the state reporting an additional 4,040 COVID-19 cases, a total of 913,464 cases have been confirmed in Maryland since the outset of the pandemic.
The statewide positivity rate now stands at 18.85%, a 0.92% decrease compared to Tuesday. That figure represents a significant decline from the nearly 30% positivity rate recorded two weeks ago.
A total of 12,614 Marylanders have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began after 79 additional deaths were recorded over the last 24 hours.
Maryland is in the midst of a 30-day state of emergency issued this month by Gov. Larry Hogan in response to surging infections and hospitalizations, which pushed several hospitals to near- or at-capacity levels.
Appearing Sunday on CBS News' Face The Nation, Gov. Hogan acknowledged that hospitalizations and the positivity rate have faded over the past few days but was reluctant to say those metrics are now in a downward trend.
"We did a lot of things to try to help increase the capacity of our hospital systems—sent in 1,000 members of the National Guard," Hogan said. "We're taking a lot of actions directly."
Last week, the governor announced the state would distribute 20 million N95 and KN95 masks through health departments and other partners across the state.
Hogan has attributed the surge in cases to the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which he previously said is "now clearly the dominant variant among our state's lab-confirmed cases."
The governor said genome sequencing by the University of Maryland found that 88% of recent samples tested positive for Omicron, with that figure rising to 91% among samples taken from hospitalized patients.
In recent weeks, the state has ramped up its testing operations in an effort to keep up with public demand. That includes opening 20 new testing sites statewide with support from the Maryland National Guard.
Hospitals statewide have freed up beds and scaled back non-emergency procedures, with 14 shifting to crisis standards of care, in response to the COVID-19 surge.
Hogan issued an executive order on Jan. 4 empowering the Maryland Department of Health to regulate hospital capacity and resources, and authorizing retired, out-of-state and graduate nurses to practice. Another order shored up EMS response.
There are 4,346,197 Marylanders fully vaccinated and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 93.3% of the state's adults have gotten at least one dose. Among Marylanders age 5 and older, 87.4% of residents have gotten at least one does of the vaccine.
The state has administered 10,817,943 doses of the vaccine.
Of those, 4,581,432 are first doses, 5,510 in the last 24 hours. Another 4,015,528 are second doses, 4,181 in the past day. A total of 330,669 Marylanders have gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 155 in the past day.
The state has administered 1,890,314 boosters, 14,477 in the past 24 hours.