BALTIMORE — Maryland reported there were more patients hospitalized with coronavirus Wednesday, 2,046, than at any point during the pandemic, as the state logged another record-breaking daily COVID-19 case count.
With 220 more patients hospitalized Wednesday than the day before, the state crossed the 2,000-patient, state-instituted threshold requiring hospitals to suspend elective surgeries and manage its patient census.
In a statement released by his office, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said the surge of hospitalizations was driven mostly by unvaccinated patients. In his statement, Hogan touted measures his administration had put in place in anticipation of the increase. He said the state’s surge operations center is keeping tabs on hospital bed capacity and maximizing alternative care sites.
Citing an increasing count of hospitals entering crisis mode, the Maryland Hospital Association on Tuesday called for Hogan to reinstate a public health emergency.
The statement from Hogan’s office Wednesday mentioned no such move.
Meanwhile, Maryland reported 10,873 new coronavirus infections Wednesday, shattering the previous record of cases reported for a 24-hour period established last week, according to health department data.
That daily output means almost 48,000 in Maryland, or roughly 1 in every 125 Marylanders, have tested positive for the coronavirus since Dec. 23.
Thirty more Marylanders were reported dead from COVID-19 Wednesday, meaning the virus has killed 11,467 in the state throughout the pandemic, according to the health department.
Health officials reported 73,521 new test results Wednesday. The state’s average testing positivity rate, the mean of nasal swabs returned positive over the last seven days, lurched up to 19.31% — up 1.73 percentage points compared to the day before — and continued climbing toward the peak rate recorded during the pandemic’s nascence in Maryland, health department data show.
Wednesday’s coronavirus metrics underscore the scope of the virus surge buoyed by the highly contagious omicron variant, which has begun to overwhelm Maryland hospitals and the state’s COVID-19 testing capacity.
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