Vaccine Rollout Challenges Prince George's, But Key Metrics Fall

PRINCE GEORGE'S, COUNTY, MD — After hitting recent highs, most of Prince George's County's coronavirus metrics are pointing downward this week. Hospitalizations, Intensive Care Unit Hospitalizations and the positivity rate all fell for the second straight week.

The county still isn't in the clear, however. Prince George's set another record high case rate this week, and hospitalizations are still staggering. Vaccine rollout also troubles the county, which ranks last in the state.

Last week's 3,235 cases are down 397 from the week prior. The virus also killed 28 county residents last week, which is four less than the week before, the Maryland Department of Health said. Here's a breakdown of the latest coronavirus metrics in Prince George's County.

Vaccine Update

• Currently: 1.32 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, 12,016 Prince George's County residents have gotten their first shot. That's 1.32 percent of the population, which is the lowest immunization rate in the state. Garrett County leads the way with 6.75 percent vaccination.

The second dose has reached 1,166 Prince Georgians. That's 0.13 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:

• 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 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
• High-risk inmates

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 the state does not need to vaccinate everybody in each phase before moving onto the next. For more information on Prince George's plan, click here.

Coronavirus Case Rate

• Currently: 55.57
• Trend: Up by 0.4

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 say expanded in-person classes are probably safe when the local case rate dips below 5. Prince George's County's case rate has jumped to 55.57 which is up 0.4 from this time last week. Last Thursday's case rate of 58.83 was the county's highest rate ever.

Prince George's had a previous case rate high of 38.85 on May 7. It reached lows of 7.57 on July 2 and 9.96 on Sept. 25, but it's been an upward climb since then.

Hospitalizations

• Currently: 211
• Trend: Down by 5

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations declined for the second straight week, though they are still soaring. Hospitalizations were nearing their high of 244, set in the week of May 3, but they are still well above their summertime lows.

The disease left 211 people hospitalized in Prince George's County in the last reported week. That's down five from the week prior, and it's the third most since the county's peak. Hospitalizations hit an overall low of 44 in the week of Sept. 20. They jumped to a recent high of 217 in the week of Dec. 27.

ICU Hospitalizations

• Currently: 61
• Trend: Down by 4

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 61 patients in the ICU with the virus. That's down four from the week prior, and it's the second straight week of ICU decline. ICU hospitalizations hit a previous high of 75 in the week of Dec. 27 after they bottomed out at 11 in the week of Aug. 2.

Positivity Rate

• Currently: 10.47
• Trend: Down by 0.6 percentage points

The county's positivity rate fell slightly for the second 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 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.

Prince George's County's positivity rate sits at 10.47 percent, which is 0.6 percentage points lower than last week. The 11.92 percent positivity clocked on Jan. 3 was the highest clip since June 5.

The positivity rate is down from its May 2 high of 41.95 percent, but it's up from its Sept. 24 low of 3.46 percent.

Total Cases And Deaths

Prince George's County's 63,258 coronavirus infections are the most in the state. The virus is blamed for the death of 1,143 county residents.

RELATED:

• Cases Rise At Fastest Rate Ever, But There's Good News
• Hogan Gets Coronavirus Vaccine In Public, Hopes To Show It's Safe
• DMV Teachers Call For More Distance Learning Until Metrics Fall
• Marylanders Try To Cut Line For Coronavirus Vaccine: Hogan
• Hogan Shifts Vaccine Plan, Hopes To Overcome Slow Distribution
• Indoor Dining Shut Down, Capacities Trimmed In Prince George's

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