Hogan Calls Omicron 'Dominant' Variant As Maryland's Positivity Rate Tops 28%
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise in Maryland, reaching 3,118 on Wednesday, a day after Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency in response to surging infections.
The latest data from the Maryland Department of Health shows cases, deaths and the positivity rate also rose over the past 24 hours, even as state and local officials roll out emergency measures intended to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Even with the recent emergency actions, Hogan renewed his call Wednesday for Marylanders to do their part by getting their shots, citing University of Maryland health system data that shows most of its COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.
"While we continue to say we're going to continue to take whatever emergency actions are necessary to withstand the current surge of Omicron, I just can't stress enough how important it is to get your booster as quickly as possible," Hogan said.
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.
"Omicron is now clearly the dominant variant among our state's lab-confirmed cases," he said.
The percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 rose to 28.56%, an increase of 1.12%. Cases of COVID-19 in Maryland increased by 10,286 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 766,230 since the start of the pandemic.
At least 49 more people have died of COVID-19, according to the state's latest figures, as Maryland approaches 12,000 deaths (11,755).
In recent weeks, hospitals across the state have declared disasters and shifted to crisis protocols to manage the flow of COVID-19 admissions.
Of those hospitalized, 2,578 are adults in acute care and 499 are adults in intensive care, state health department data show. There are 31 children in acute care and 10 more in the ICU.
In the past month, Hogan said, roughly three-quarters (74%) of the University of Maryland health system's COVID-19 patients have been unvaccinated individuals, while another 24% are vaccinated.
"The most important data point that we found is that only 2% of all the COVID patients in all of their hospitals over the past 30 days are people who had received booster shots," the governor said.
The governor issued a pair of executive orders Tuesday, one of which empowers the Department of Health to regulate hospital staffing and resources, while clearing the way for retired, out-of-state and graduate nurses to practice here. Another is aimed at shoring up the state's EMS response.
Additionally, Hogan activated 1,000 members of the Maryland National Guard. Part of their mission involves standing up 20 new state-run testing sites, and a quarter of those troops will support operations at existing clinics.
There are 4,274,300 Marylanders fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 92.2$ of the state's adults have gotten at least one dose.
The state has administered 10,421,215 doses of the vaccine. Of those, 4,494,304 are first doses, 4,968 of them in the past 24 hours. Another 3,946,175 are second doses, 3,151 of them in the last day. The state has administered 1,652,611 booster doses, 13,117 in the past 24 hours.
A total of 328,125 Marylanders have gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 166 over the last 24 hours.