BALTIMORE – Maryland on Monday reported the fewest number of new, daily coronavirus cases since March 2 as current hospitalizations and the statewide positivity rate continued to decline.
Here’s a breakdown of Monday’s numbers:
Cases
The Maryland Department of Health reported 557 new coronavirus cases Monday, bringing the total number of cases reported throughout the pandemic up to 443,814.
The 906 new cases reported Sunday broke a four-day streak during which Maryland reported more than 1,000 new cases per day.
March 26 was the last time the state’s 14-day average of new cases dipped below 1,000.
Deaths
State health officials reported that eight more people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died, bringing the total number of fatalities to 8,483.
Hospitalizations
Maryland hospitals were treating 1,115 people due to complications from COVID-19, 30 fewer than the day before, according to state health officials. The number of current coronavirus patients has declined for six consecutive days.
At least 1,000 people with COVID-19 have been hospitalized due to the disease since March 29.
Testing Positivity
The statewide seven-day average positivity rate was 4.51%, a decrease of 0.25 percentage points compared to Sunday’s reporting and the third day in a row that health officials reported a rate below 5%. The positivity rate, which averages the number of positive test results collected over a week, has also declined for six days straight.
The World Health Organization recommends jurisdictions report a positivity rate of below 5% for two weeks before relaxing coronavirus restrictions.
More than 17,000 tests were reported completed in the past 24 hours, with 4.04% coming back positive for COVID-19, according to the state. The state had previously gone four-straight days with a daily positivity rate — the number of positive tests reported over a 24-hour period — below 4%.
Vaccinations
With nearly 32,000 first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines reported administered, state officials said more than 2.5 million Marylanders have received at least their first dose of a vaccine, or about 41.5% of the state’s population. The two vaccines require a two-dose regimen for people to reach maximum immunization.
In addition, more than 1.8 million Marylanders have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Sunday, or about 30.4% of the state’s population.
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