Maryland Reports Nearly 1,400 New COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Decline

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Maryland reported nearly 1,400 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday as cases trend up in the state, but hospitalizations decline.

The Maryland Department of Health reported 1,392 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 1,030,144 since the pandemic began. Until Thursday, the last time the state saw that many new cases was in late February.

The statewide positivity rate declined to 4.55%, a 0.02% decrease compared to Wednesday.

COVID-19 hospitalizations dipped to 183, a decrease of 16 since Wednesday. Of those hospitalized, 148 are adults in acute care, 24 are adults in intensive care, four are children in acute care and two are children in intensive care.

Maryland's overall COVID-19 death toll stands at 14,185 after increasing by eight over the past 24 hours.

The increases come amid uncertainty over a federal mask mandate for mass transit. At the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Justice is appealing a federal judge's ruling that struck down the mandate.

Despite a CDC recommendation that travelers continue to wear masks, transit agencies have dropped mask requirements on buses, trains and planes.

More than 4.6 million Marylanders are fully vaccinated. According to the CDC, 95% of Maryland's adults have gotten a dose of the vaccine and 91.7% of eligible children have received at least one dose.

Maryland has administered roughly 11.7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Of those, roughly 4.8 million are the first dose, 4.26 million are the second dose, 341,826 are single-dose vaccines and another 2.3 million are booster shots.