Pause In Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Could Delay Maryland's Goals As Baltimore City Emerges As Potential New Hotspot
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- Maryland added 1,564 coronavirus cases and 16 deaths as hospitalizations decreased Friday.
Hospitalizations went down by 12 to 1,232. Of those, 296 people are in ICU beds and 936 are in acute care.
The state's positivity rate went down slightly to 5.67% The state conducted 46,427 coronavirus tests in the last day.
Since the pandemic began in the state there have been 433,359 confirmed COVID-19 cases. At this time, 8,342 Marylanders have died.
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As of Friday morning, there are 1,535,111 Marylanders fully vaccinated for the virus. The state has administered 3,756,692 doses so far. Of those, 2,221,581 are first doses, with 40,369 administered in the last day. They have administered 1,356,081 second doses, with 40,345 in the last day.
The state had administered a total of 176,161 before the Johnson & Johnson shot was paused.
Gov. Larry Hogan visited the state's 11th mass vaccination site Friday, this one at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
"All of us have built it, and now it's time to get everybody out here," said Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman.
Despite the new site, Gov. Larry Hogan announced the state may not be able to reach one of its vaccination goals- to have everyone vaccinated by Memorial Day- due to the J&J pause.
More than one and a half million Marylanders are now fully vaccinated. But news of a temporary pause on the J&J vaccine means the state can now only rely on doses from Pfizer and Moderna.
"I was very clear that if we got the vaccine they were promising us, that we could finish the job by Memorial Day. We are not getting the vaccines they promised us," Gov. Hogan said.
There are concerns for Baltimore City and Baltimore County becoming potential new hotspots. City health officials said the caseload is 131% higher than a month ago. The positivity rate is up too, 5.3%; that's a 119% increase.
"We are all longing for some sense of normalcy, but we are not in the clear yet," said City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa.
In its weekly COVID-19 briefing, experts at Johns Hopkins said 20 states are seeing a rise in cases, and the disease knows no borders.
"There are still big parts of the country, lots of places where there's a lot of vulnerable people," said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, JHU.
Another mass vaccination site is expected to open next week. This site, for example, has the ability to vaccinate up to 1,500 people a day. But because of the limited supply, officials have said they are doing about a third of that.
Here is a breakdown of the numbers:
By County
| County | Cases | Deaths | |
| Allegany | 6,685 | (204) | 1* |
| Anne Arundel | 41,045 | (568) | 14* |
| Baltimore City | 48,579 | (966) | 23* |
| Baltimore County | 60,389 | (1,385) | 35* |
| Calvert | 4,035 | (74) | 1* |
| Caroline | 2,209 | (22) | 0* |
| Carroll | 8,795 | (224) | 5* |
| Cecil | 5,732 | (126) | 2* |
| Charles | 10,214 | (179) | 2* |
| Dorchester | 2,582 | (49) | 1* |
| Frederick | 19,002 | (298) | 9* |
| Garrett | 1,936 | (61) | 1* |
| Harford | 15,395 | (261) | 4* |
| Howard | 18,249 | (224) | 6* |
| Kent | 1,270 | (43) | 2* |
| Montgomery | 68,623 | (1,451) | 46* |
| Prince George's | 81,035 | (1,392) | 29* |
| Queen Anne's | 2,817 | (41) | 1* |
| St. Mary's | 5,649 | (123) | 0* |
| Somerset | 2,514 | (37) | 0* |
| Talbot | 2,025 | (36) | 0* |
| Washington | 13,801 | (266) | 3* |
| Wicomico | 7,288 | (152) | 0* |
| Worcester | 3,490 | (93) | 1* |
| Data not available | 0 | (67) | 0* |
By Age Range and Gender
| Age/Gender | Cases | Deaths | |
| 0-9 | 23,112 | (3) | 0* |
| 10-19 | 43,420 | (6) | 1* |
| 20-29 | 79,595 | (35) | 1* |
| 30-39 | 74,210 | (83) | 6* |
| 40-49 | 64,986 | (234) | 5* |
| 50-59 | 64,998 | (670) | 25* |
| 60-69 | 43,499 | (1,365) | 18* |
| 70-79 | 24,089 | (2,137) | 38* |
| 80+ | 15,450 | (3,807) | 92* |
| Data not available | 0 | (2) | 0* |
| Female | 226,451 | (4,018) | 91* |
| Male | 206,908 | (4,324) | 95* |
| Unknown | 0 | () | 0* |
By Race and Ethnicity
| Race/Ethnicity | Cases | Deaths | |
| African-American (NH) | 130,679 | (2,901) | 67* |
| Asian (NH) | 10,440 | (292) | 7* |
| White (NH) | 152,542 | (4,251) | 97* |
| Hispanic | 66,697 | (752) | 15* |
| Other (NH) | 20,232 | (83) | 0* |
| Data not available | 52,769 | (63) | 0* |
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.