Prince George's Starts Squashing Coronavirus Surge; Cases Plummet

PRINCE GEORGE'S, COUNTY, MD —Prince George's County is starting to recover from its post-holiday surge. That third wave pushed the case rate higher than ever and swamped hospitals with coronavirus patients. The county is now on the mend, but it is not in the clear.

Nearly all the key metrics declined for the second straight week. Hospitalizations are down to their December 2020 levels, and the positivity rate is the lowest it's been since November of 2020.

Last week's 2,607 cases are down 628 from the week prior. The virus also killed 36 county residents last week, which is eight more than the week before, the Maryland Department of Health said. Here's a breakdown of the latest coronavirus trends in Prince George's County.

Vaccine Update

• Currently: 1.98 percent
• Trend: Up by 0.66 percentage points

The state tallies the number of Marylanders who have gotten the immunization on this website. So far, 18,036 Prince George's County residents have gotten their first shot. That's up by 6,020 from last week, and it's 1.98 percent of the population.

Prince George's County continues to have the lowest immunization rate in the state. The second slowest jurisdiction, neighboring Charles County, is moving nearly twice as fast as Prince George's. Talbot County leads the way with 10.35 percent vaccination.

The second dose has reached 2,547 Prince Georgians. That's 1,381 more than a week ago, and it's 0.13 percent of all county residents.

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:

• Hospital and frontline health care workers
• Residents and staff of long-term care facilities and nursing homes
• Frontline first responders and essential public safety workers
• All licensed, registered and certified health care providers
• Department of Corrections staff

The state entered phase 1B of vaccination on Jan. 18. That enabled 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
• High-risk inmates

Maryland began stage 1C on Monday. Residents age 65 to 74 are now eligible, as are essential workers in lab services, agriculture, manufacturing and the postal service. Gov. Larry Hogan reminded Marylanders the state does not need to vaccinate everybody in each phase before moving on to the next.

For more information on Prince George's plan, click here. To see when you'll be eligible for the inoculation, read Patch's explainer. Check out our how-to guide to learn how to sign up for the shot.

Coronavirus Case Rate

• Currently: 40.96
• Trend: Down by 14.61

Health officials focus on several metrics to evaluate the coronavirus pandemic. The most commonly 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 said it is probably safe to return to fully in-person classes when the local case rate dips below 5. Prince George's County's case rate is still above this mark, but it has fallen to 40.96. That's down by 14.61 from this time last week.

The case rate was even lower on Saturday. The metric set at 33.83, which was the lowest since Nov. 18, 2020. The case rate has plummeted since Jan. 14, when Prince George's set a record high of 58.83.

The county's case rate hit a previous peak of 38.85 on May 7, 2020. It reached an all-time low of 7.57 on July 2, 2020.

Hospitalizations

• Currently: 210
• Trend: Down by 1

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations declined for the third straight week, but they are still soaring. The disease left 210 Prince George's County residents hospitalized on Sunday. That's down one from the week prior, and it's the lowest since the week of Dec. 20, 2020.

Prince George's is easing down from its Dec. 27 peak of 217 hospitalizations, which were the second-most ever. The record high of 244 came in the week of May 3, 2020. Hospitalizations hit an overall low of 44 in the week of Sept. 20, 2020.

ICU Hospitalizations

• Currently: 62
• Trend: Up by 1

Covid ActNow, a coronavirus statistics website, estimates that Prince George's County has 122 beds in the intensive care unit. Hospitals need to save some of these beds for emergencies that aren't related to coronavirus.

Last week, Prince George's had 62 patients in the ICU with the virus. That's up one from the week prior, and it snaps the county's two-week streak of ICU decline. ICU hospitalizations hit an all-time high of 75 in the week of Dec. 27 after they bottomed out at 11 in the week of Aug. 2.

Positivity Rate

• Currently: 8.81
• Trend: Down by 1.66 percentage points

The county's positivity rate fell slightly for the third straight week. 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 said a positivity rate of less than 5 percent demonstrates that a region has enough testing to control its outbreak.

Prince George's County's positivity rate dropped to 8.81 percent on Sunday, which is down by 1.66 percentage points from this time last week. The positivity rate hasn't been this low since Nov. 27, 2020.

The rate has been on a steady decline since Jan. 3. That's when the positivity rate peaked at 11.92 percent, which was the highest since June 5, 2020. The positivity rate is down from its May 2, 2020 high of 41.95 percent, but it's still up from its Sept. 24, 2020 low of 3.46 percent.

Total Cases And Deaths

Prince George's County's 65,865 coronavirus infections are the most in the state. The virus is blamed for the death of 1,179 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.