Community Corner

COVID-19 Emergency Declaration Expires Wednesday In Prince George's County

The COVID-19 emergency declaration in Prince George's will be allowed to expire Wednesday at 5 p.m. Masks must be worn on public transit.

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD β€” The county's COVID-19 emergency declaration will be allowed to expire Wednesday, March 9, at 5 p.m.

The county’s percentage of positive tests continues to be below 2 percent and cases have remained below 100 per day since Feb. 7. The county’s current positivity rate as of March 7 is 1.7 percent and the weekly case rate per 100,000 residents is 28.37. As of Feb. 25, the CDC published new metrics for COVID-19 community transmission levels to include new weekly totals for COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 residents, new weekly case rates per 100,000 and weekly percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. According to CDC, Prince George’s County is in the low transmission level for all three metrics.

β€œDuring the last several weeks, we have continued to make tremendous strides in our fight against COVID-19,” Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said. β€œThanks to the hard work of Prince Georgians, we have seen a substantial decrease in our case rate since the surge of the Omicron variant, so we are comfortable with this decision as we continue moving into the next phase of this pandemic."

Find out what's happening in Bowiefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The county's indoor mask mandate ended Feb. 28 although a mask mandate remains in place for public transportation through a CDC order. Residents are still required to wear a mask while taking any form of public transportation in the county and elsewhere in the United States, which includes buses, trains and planes.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.