COVID-19 In Maryland: Positivity Rate Up To 15.85%
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Maryland reported more than 25,000 new COVID-19 cases over the holiday weekend, according to state health department data released Sunday.
The percentage of people testing positive rose to 15.85%, an increase of 1.77% since Thursday.
Health department data show that COVID-19 cases rose by 25,035 over the weekend -- 9,859 on Friday, 9,350 on Saturday and 5,826 on Sunday -- bringing the total to 663,414.
Hospitalizations rose by 49 to 1,584. Of those hospitalized, 1,242 adults are in acute care and 326 are in intensive care. Twelve children are in acute care and four are in intensive care.
The latest data comes after Maryland surpassed 1,500 hospitalizations Thursday, triggering pandemic plans at hospitals. Under these plans, hospitals are directed to maximize bed space and scale back non-emergency procedures.
On Friday, Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air declared a hospital disaster and shifted to crisis protocols after a recent explosion in COVID-19 cases, including a 733% increase over the past four weeks.
Last week, Gov. Larry Hogan announced plans to spend $100 million in emergency funding to shore up the medical workforce and expand access to COVID-19 tests, vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments.
Since the pandemic began, there have been a total of 663,414 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Maryland and 11,022 deaths.
There are 4,246,682 Marylanders fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The state has administered 10,216,609 doses. Of those, 4,448,510 are first doses, with 602 administered in the past two days. Officials have given out 3,920,089 second doses, 402 of them in the last 48 hours.
A total of 326,593 Marylanders have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 15 over the last 48 hours.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show 91.3% of all Marylanders age 18 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Even as officials monitor cases of the new Omicron variant, which is believed to be more transmissible than other strains, Hogan said he does not plan to impose any lockdowns.
Instead, residents are asked to socially distance, wear masks in public and get vaccinated.
In Maryland, everyone age 16 and up is eligible to get the booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
To date, the state has administered 1,521,417 additional or booster vaccine doses, according to the most recent data.
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