After Rough Stretch, Anne Arundel Coronavirus Metrics Decline

ANNE ARUNDEL, COUNTY, MD — After hitting recent highs, Anne Arundel County's coronavirus metrics are all pointing downward this week. Vaccines have also reached about 3 percent of county residents, and more than 1,500 have now gotten their second dose.

The county still isn't in the clear, however. Anne Arundel is coming off a record high case rate, and hospitalizations are still staggering. The county also passed 30,000 total infections and 400 coronavirus-related deaths last week.

Still, Anne Arundel County tallied more than 1,000 coronavirus infections for the tenth straight week. The county is reporting about four times as many cases-per-day as its summertime high.

Last week's 1,972 infections are down 601 from the week prior. The virus also killed 20 county residents last week, which is 11 less than the week before, the Maryland Department of Health said.

Vaccine Update

• Currently: 3.34 percent
• Trend: N/A

Maryland is vaccinating about 15,000 residents-per-week. The state tallies the number of Marylanders who have gotten the immunization on this website.

This is the first week that the state reported vaccine results by county. They used to be lumped together into regions.

So far, 19,347 Anne Arundel County residents have gotten their first shot. That's 3.34 percent of the population.

The second dose has reached 1,508 residents. That's 0.26 percent of the population.

The vaccine rollout has five phases: 1A, 1B, 1C, 2 and 3. The following residents were part of stage 1A. Though Maryland has already opened the door to more locals, these people can still get the inoculation:

• Health care workers
• Public health employees
• Residents and staff of nursing homes
• First responders
• Judiciary employees
• Corrections staffers

The state entered phase 1B of vaccination on Monday. That enables these Marylanders to get the inoculation:

• Anybody age 75 and older
• Residents of congregate living facilities
• School staff
• Those needed for continuity of government
• Child-care providers

Maryland will begin stage 1C on Jan. 25. Residents age 65 to 74 will be eligible in that period, as will essential workers in lab services, agriculture, manufacturing and the postal service.

Gov. Larry Hogan reminded Marylanders that the state does not need to vaccinate everybody in each phase before moving onto the next. Though more people are eligible now, Anne Arundel is still catching up on priority groups.

"Due to limited vaccine supplies, we are first scheduling appointments for Phase 1A & those age 75+," the Anne Arundel County Department of Health said in a Thursday email.

For more information on Anne Arundel County's plan, click here.

Coronavirus Case Rate:

• Currently: 58.33
• Trend: Down by 0.98

Health officials focus on several metrics to evaluate the coronavirus pandemic. The most frequently-used are the case rate, hospitalizations and percent positivity.

The case rate is a per-capita measure that makes it easy to compare places with different populations. A jurisdiction's case rate is the average number of new coronavirus infections-per-day that it registers over a rolling week per 100,000 people.

As a barometer, Maryland health officials say expanded in-person classes are probably safe when the local case rate dips below 5. Anne Arundel County's case rate has spiked to 58.33. That's down by 0.98 from this time last week.

The case rate reached 64.99 last Tuesday, however. That was the county's highest clip ever.

Anne Arundel's case rate hit previous highs of 13.4 on June 3 and 14.26 on Aug. 2. It reached a low of 3.53 on June 26, but it's been an upward climb since then.

Hospitalizations

• Currently: 154
• Trend: Down by 8

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations are still soaring. They sit a notch below their April 21 high of 172. Hospitalizations are starting to level off, but they are still above their summertime lows.

The disease left 154 Anne Arundel County residents hospitalized on Sunday. That's down eight from the week prior. The 168 hospitalizations on Jan. 8 were the second-most ever.

The county had fewer than 50 hospitalizations between June 14 and Oct. 18. They hit an overall low of 21 on Sept. 21.

ICU Hospitalizations

• Currently: 34
• Trend: Down by 3

Covid ActNow, a coronavirus statistics website, estimates that Anne Arundel County has 50 beds in the intensive care unit. Hospitals need to save some of these beds for emergencies that aren't related to coronavirus.

On Sunday, Anne Arundel had 34 patients in the ICU with the virus. That's down three from this time last week. Still, the 43 ICU hospitalizations registered last Thursday were the most since May 13.

ICU usage maxed out at 49 on May 13. It receded to 4 by Aug. 24. ICU hospitalizations have fluctuated between 26 and 43 since December.

Positivity Rate

• Currently: 9.1 percent
• Trend: Down by 0.91 percentage points

The county's positivity rate is pointing downward after a weekslong rise. This is the percentage of coronavirus tests that come back positive over a moving seven days. The statistic also measures whether an area has enough tests to identify most of its infections.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a positivity rate of less than 5 percent demonstrates that a region has enough testing to control its outbreak. The Maryland Department of Health says hybrid learning should be safe when jurisdictions fall beneath this benchmark.

Anne Arundel County's positivity rate reached 9.1 percent on Sunday, which is down by 0.91 percentage points from this time last week. The 10.4 percent positivity registered on Jan. 3 was the highest since May 30.

The positivity rate is down from its April 16 high of 28.16 percent, but it's up from its Aug. 16 low of 2.29 percent.

The county stayed beneath the 5 percent positivity threshold for 137 days. That streak, which started on June 22, came to an end on Nov. 7. The local positivity rate has since doubled.

Total Cases And Deaths

Anne Arundel County's 30,174 coronavirus infections are the fifth most in the state. The virus is blamed for the death of 408 county residents.

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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.