Maryland's COVID-19 Dashboard Back Up & Running After 2-Week Hiatus
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- For the first time in two weeks, the Maryland Department of Health on Monday resumed topline data reporting on its COVID-19 dashboard.
The latest round of data showed Maryland has confirmed more than 28,000 new cases of COVID-19 over the past couple weeks, and the percentage of people testing positive has nearly doubled to 10.27%.
"I want to thank the team of people who have been working diligently over the past 16 days to bring our COVID-19 data reporting back online," Maryland Health Secretary Dennis Schrader said in a statement. "This data is critical to our keeping the public informed and to further our COVID fighting operations."
The dashboard had only been reporting hospitalization and vaccination data since early December when it was taken offline due to an intrusion detected within the health department's network. Access to the site was later restored, but up-to-date data for certain metrics wasn't available until Monday.
According to the health department, the breach did not impede the state's ability to screen residents for COVID-19, administer vaccines or carry out any of the other aspects of its pandemic response.
Earlier this month, Gov. Larry Hogan acknowledged the agency's system was compromised but said the cyber attack wasn't as bad as officials initially thought.
"We don't believe that any data was sacrificed, and I think they're digging into it and getting into the problem," the governor said. "It hasn't changed any of the data gathering or really put us in any kind of a tough position with respect to the data set in our system."
Hogan said the intrusion could have been worse if not for preventative steps taken by the state.
"Luckily, we have been taking some pretty serious actions over the past several years and over the past many months, and we're in a much better position than we would have been," he said.