Maryland's stay-at-home order was lifted May 15. Here is what the coronavirus data looks like as of June 15. (Elizabeth Janney/Patch)
MARYLAND — Days after the governor declared the state ready for stage two of its reopening, he said the coronavirus positivity rate has gone down and the rate of deaths has slowed. More than 500,000 coronavirus tests have been conducted in Maryland, health officials reported Monday.
“Today marks one month since we began Stage One of our safe, gradual, and effective roadmap to recovery, and all of our key health metrics continue to trend in a positive direction,” Gov. Larry Hogan said in a statement Monday morning.
"Over the past eight weeks we have increased testing by 510 percent," Hogan said. "Once again, we are strongly encouraging anyone who wants to be tested and anyone who has been in any large gathering or who may have been exposed, especially those who are in or who are around vulnerable populations, to get tested.”
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In the aftermath of protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Hogan said Wednesday there would be "high-volume testing sites" established for protesters. One location was to be at the Baltimore Convention Center, and as of Monday it was not operational.
"More information about the convention center test site and other locations, including operating hours, is forthcoming," Charlie Gischlar, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Health, said in an email to Patch Friday. In addition to the convention center on West Pratt Street, he said "several other key testing locations are currently under consideration."
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The governor gave local jurisdictions flexibility to modify reopening plans as local leaders saw fit. As of Monday, all but two jurisdictions have entered stage two of the state's reopening.
Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young said Baltimore needs more data before moving forward, including indications of whether the Memorial Day weekend and recent protests have an effect on the volume of coronavirus cases in the city.
"We do not yet have testing capacity," Baltimore Health Commissioner Letitia Dzirasa said Friday, adding it was not yet possible for anyone in the city who wanted to be tested to have access. Until that is the case, she said it was not prudent to move forward with reopening.
Statewide, 331 new cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the past day, state health officials reported Monday morning.
The positivity rate for the virus has dropped to 6.55 percent in Maryland, according to the Maryland Department of Health. All jurisdictions now have positivity rates in the single digits, since the rate in Prince George’s County dropped to 9.88 percent, officials said.
Half of the state's 24 jurisdictions have positivity rates under 5 percent, according to authorities, including Allegany, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Dorchester, Garrett, Harford, Queen Anne's, Somerset, St. Mary's, Talbot and Washington counties.
Courtesy of Maryland Department of Health.
A total of 62,032 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Maryland, officials said as of Monday morning. There are 745 coronavirus patients in Maryland hospitals, including 292 on the intensive care unit (ICU).
The number of coronavirus patients in the ICU is below 300 for the first time in 10 weeks, officials said Monday.
At the state's poultry plants, the governor's office reports the outbreak of coronavirus is over, as there have been no confirmed cases there so far this month.
A total of 2,817 people have died from the virus in Maryland, according to authorities, an increase of six reported in the past day. Coronavirus-related deaths in the past week have dropped by more than 25 percent compared with the previous seven days, the governor's office reported.
When Maryland began reopening May 15, there had been 1,496 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. That means 1,321 Marylanders have died in the past month from the virus.
There were 1,792 hospitalized with the virus, including 598 in the ICU, health officials said May 15. There are 745 hospitalized (a 1,047-person decrease) and 292 in the ICU (a 306-person decrease), as of June 15.
