More Worshipers Can Attend Howard County Services

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — As Maryland moves forward with its Phase 2 reopening plan, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said the county will open up more amenities, too. Effective Friday 5 p.m., the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks will open restrooms; however, playgrounds will remain closed.

Ball will be signing an executive order Thursday to bring Howard County’s reopening status in line with Maryland. Howard County also will allow indoor faith services to resume at 50 percent capacity as outlined by the governor’s executive order. Howard County has been in contact with more than 200 faith leaders across the county throughout the pandemic and at this time, many do not plan to reopen indoor services right away, Ball noted. However, some will reopen with safety guidelines in place.

“We continue to see progress on the building blocks needed to reopen safely and effectively,” Ball said in a statement. “We expect our case numbers to increase as we test more of our population and will be keeping a close eye on our hospitalization, ICU and ventilator rates over the coming weeks. Residents should continue to be vigilant in this new normal – just because we are making progress does not mean the risk is completely eliminated.”

Currently, the county is seeing the following coronavirus-related data trends that continue to progress in the right direction to allow for additional reopenings:

· A rolling seven-day average positivity rate of 8.8 percent in Howard County; the State of Maryland has a collective positivity rate of 9.5 percent.

· Howard County has tested approximately 15,712 people or 4.5 percent of its population; Howard County has increased testing from 1,300 tests performed each week as of May 14 to now more than 3,700 in the last week as new testing sites have come on board.

· Howard County has increased contact tracers from 11 as of May 14 to 35 as of Wednesday. The health department is expecting additional hires in the coming week.

· During the past seven days, the Howard County General Hospital’s ICU utilization rate dropped from 70 percent to 52 percent; while a majority of the utilization in the ICU is driven by non-coronavirus patients, the number of coroanvirus patients in the ICU has dropped from seven to three during that same period.

Howard County also continues to increase PPE supply and testing sites. There currently more than a 30-day supply of PPE.

Residents can obtain a diagnostic test at the following sites:

· VEIP Site in Columbia - 6340 Woodside Ct, Columbia
· CVS Pharmacy in Fulton - 8197 Westside Boulevard, Fulton
· First Call Urgent Care Center - 10981 Johns Hopkins Rd, Laurel
· All Care Urgent Care - 9396 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City
· Ouch Urgent Care – 6020 Meadowridge Center Dr. Suite F, Elkridge
· Righttime Medical Care – 6334 Cedar Lane, Columbia

“While the curve continues to flatten and analytics indicate that we are moving in a positive direction, we must continue to follow non-pharmaceutical interventions,” said Dr. Maura Rossman, Howard County health officer. “Residents should continue wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and handwashing to ensure a successful, broader reopening of the county."