Montgomery County Deemed 'Hot Spot' For Coronavirus Cases

BETHESDA, MD — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has designated Montgomery County as a "hot spot" for coronavirus cases.

The county — which is home to roughly 1.1 million people — is one of 12 jurisdictions in the state that demands "urgent federal attention," the Republican governor said on Tuesday. The 11 other "hot spots" are Baltimore City as well as Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Carroll, Charles, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Prince George's, and Queen Anne's counties.

The Maryland Health Department on Wednesday reported 21 more coronavirus deaths and 1,158 new cases, bringing the state's death toll to 124 and the total number of cases to 5,529. In Montgomery County, 26 people have died from COVID-19 and 1,088 have tested positive for the disease.

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Montgomery County, the state's most populous jurisdiction, had the highest number of confirmed cases in the state until last week. The jurisdiction with the most now is Prince George's County. The total: 1,310. That's an increase of 290 positive infections from a day earlier, state officials reported.

"This virus continues to spread in every jurisdiction in our state, but the concentration of Maryland cases has rapidly intensified, particularly in the Baltimore-Washington corridor," Hogan said.

Based on federal models, the peak for the virus in Maryland may occur "sometime soon," according to Dr. Thomas Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"One model that the White House uses has our peak occurring about 10 days from now," Inglesby said on Tuesday, adding that it was an estimate.

The state is under a stay-at-home order, which means Marylanders should only leave their homes for essential jobs or purposes, like grocery shopping. How well residents comply will impact the peak.

Officials said they were preparing for a potential surge at health care facilities.

"We have received ventilators from FEMA," Hogan said, "which are now available for use" at some hospitals around the state. He said that Pence agreed to send 200 ventilators Monday night to Maryland.

On Tuesday, California's governor announced his state was shipping 50 ventilators to Maryland.

"Testing continues to be the primary frustration," Hogan said. Most testing, including the rapid testing, is coming "but has not come to either Maryland or just about anywhere else, I don't think," the governor reported. The Republican said he directed the Maryland Department of Health to release all demographic data it can provide publicly about confirmed coronavirus cases but added most tests come from labs out of state and have not been providing that information.

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