Coronavirus: Maryland surpasses 100,000 cases
The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t gone away.
Precautions like masks, extra sanitizing and avoiding large gatherings remain the cornerstone of combating the virus’ spread.
With schools preparing to start up again — many virtually — after an unconventional spring semester, officials are continuing to watch key metrics like hospitalizations to determine the best path forward.
Here’s a look at where the numbers for Maryland, Delaware and Virginia stand as of Sunday, Aug. 16.
Maryland has surpassed 100,000 coronavirus cases.
The state crossed that threshold Sunday. The addition of 4,709 cases over the last week has brought the overall total to 100,212.
Current hospitalizations have dropped below 500 after their recent climb to a high of 592 at the beginning of August.
That metric had gone down to 457 as of Friday, Aug. 14, but increased by 18 to land at 475 as of Sunday.
Here’s how many cases each of the three Lower Eastern Shore counties has, with confirmed and probable deaths combined in parentheses:
- Wicomico County - 1,401 (45)
- Worcester County - 729 (20)
- Somerset County - 151 (3)
There’s been no change in fatalities for the counties over the last week, but Somerset has gained 15 cases, Worcester has gained 35 and Wicomico has gained 63.
The increase in infections has slowed for Worcester County, where data from Aug. 9 showed the jurisdiction had added three times as many cases as it did this week.
The Eastern Shore of Virginia has reported another 26 COVID-19 cases.
Accomack County accounts for 1,123 of the region’s 1,422 cases, while Northampton County has the remaining 299. The number of Shore residents who have been tested has topped 10,000.
The statewide case total has climbed to 106,687. That’s 6,601 cases added over the last seven days.
The Shore represents about 1.3% of that overall sum and about .4% of the recently added infections.
Current hospitalizations in Virginia are below 1,200 for the first time in two weeks, according to Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association data.
The most recent daily hospitalization counts for the shore had Accomack County at two as of Aug. 15 and Northampton County at one as of Aug. 13.
Accomack County has added one more virus-related fatality, bringing its death toll to 17. Northampton County remains at 29 fatalities.
Delaware’s coronavirus case total has reached 16,451 with an additional 876 infections over the last week.
That includes 342 new cases for Sussex County, where the case count is now 6,181.
For comparison, the state gained less than 650 cases in the week ending Aug. 9 — 183 of them from Sussex.
A Division of Public Health news release shows that as of Aug. 14, daily increases in the statewide case count had been below 100 for a week for the first time since mid-June.
The substantial jump in cases is the result of the 373 infections added to the case count between Thursday, Aug. 13, and Friday, Aug. 14.
Delaware health officials say 83 of those cases were new, while the remaining 291 largely represented historical test results from the Department of Correction that had been recently processed into the state’s surveillance system.
Another 88 DOC-related cases had made their way into the system in the previous 24 hours as well.
That’s because the DOC’s health care provider recently changed the way it reports positive test results. DPH says it’s now submitting them all electronically, and the first streamlined report provided 300 test results, including around 100 that were positive.
The Sussex County death toll has not budged over the last seven days, remaining at 192. Fatalities statewide have increased by two to 593.
Hospitalizations have further fallen from 36 to 30, while critical care patients are down to eight.