1,000th Coronavirus Patient Discharged As Nurses Celebrate: Video

ANNAPOLIS, MD — Though coronavirus infections continue to spread, it's worth checking in on those who recovered from the disease. The Anne Arundel Medical Center discharged its 1,000th coronavirus patient last Wednesday, a report noted.

A line of workers cheered the patient on as a nurse wheeled her out of the hospital. The patient, who AAMC identified as Claudia Solorzano, is 35. After one night in the hospital, the Annapolis resident was ready ready to head home, AAMC said.

As of Wednesday, 417 Marylanders are hospitalized with coronavirus. That's down from the state's April 30 peak of 1,711 hospitalizations. The current hospitalizations count is up from its recent low of 281 achieved on Sept. 20.

Maryland has tallied 132,918 coronavirus infections and 3,877 related deaths to date. The state does not report how many people have made a full recovery. This is hard to track because many patients do not get retested after they beat the virus.

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Coronavirus Statistics Update

The most recent data clock Anne Arundel County's positivity rate at 3.47 percent, which is 0.38 percent higher than the statewide clip. The county's positivity rate hit its pandemic low of 2.29 percent on Aug. 16.

After jumping to a recent high of 4.45 percent on Sept. 7, the rate started to plateau. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says municipalities should aim to keep their positivity rate below 5 percent.

Anne Arundel County has been under the 5 percent benchmark since June 22. The local positivity rate topped out at 28.24 percent on April 16.

"My goal first and foremost in all of this is to save lives," County Executive Steuart Pittman said at a virtual town hall on Sept. 15. "We’re still at-risk and we still have people that are likely to die from this. We want to save as many lives as we can."

While the jurisdiction meets the percent positive guideline, it does not meet the state's infections-per-capita marker. State health officials say municipalities should aim for case rate of less than five new coronavirus cases-per-day per 100,000 people.

Anne Arundel County's case rate has aligned with Maryland's trends. It hit an initial peak of 13.84 on June 3 before receding to its minimum of 3.53 by June 26.

A second surge spiked Anne Arundel's case rate to its overall peak of 14.26 on Aug. 2. Infections quelled by Aug. 20, dropping the case rate to 6.93.

After a brief downturn, another wave accelerated the county's infections. The case rate hiked to 12.78 on Sept. 18. Nine days later, the case rate fell to 8.56, but it has already returned to 10.9. That's nearly double the state's goal.

The county must average less than 28.96 new coronavirus infections-per-day over a rolling week to meet the state's per-capita suggestion. Anne Arundel County has averaged 65.57 new cases-per-day during the last seven days.

Anne Arundel has the fifth most coronavirus infections in the state, with 10,986. The virus has killed 248 county residents.

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations have seen an upswing recently. The virus had 21 Anne Arundel County residents in the hospital on Sept. 27. That was the fewest since April 3 when 21 locals were hospitalized.

Saturday saw 45 hospitalizations. That was the most since Aug. 5. Hospitalizations fell to 39, as of the most recent report.

Fewer than 50 coronavirus patients have been in the hospital at a time since June 14. The county's recent high of 49 hospitalizations came on July 24. More than 170 people were hospitalized in Anne Arundel County on the pandemic's April 21 peak.

"We’re all a little bit wary of this pandemic," Pittman said at the town hall. "We all just wish it would go away."

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Have a story idea? Please contact me at jacob.baumgart@patch.com with any pitches, tips or questions. Follow me on Twitter @JacobBaumgart and on Facebook @JacobBaumgartJournalist to stay up-to-date with the latest Anne Arundel County and Prince George's County news.