Find COVID Tests, Get Vaccinated In Howard County: Feb. 22

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — As of Tuesday, Howard County officials reported a total positive COVID-19 case count of 42,768 so far. Maryland has 998,888 confirmed cases total so far, reports the state department of health. The county has been unable to update case data to its site since December because of technical issues.

"HCHD (Howard County Health Department) continues to follow many metrics to understand the impact of COVID-19 on Howard County residents and to inform our recommendations. The metrics include, case rate, percent change in case rates, test positivity rate, testing turn-around time, contact tracing efforts, hospital bed occupancy, ICU capacity and COVID deaths. For the first time in three months, none of these metrics are in the red or danger zone," Howard County Health Officer Maura Rossman said Tuesday.

The county's current 7-day average case rate stands at 10.79 daily new cases per 100,000 and the CDC community transmission level is now designated as substantial.

"This is an important milestone indicating marked improvement in the prevalence of disease within our county. When community transmission remains high or substantial, (>7 daily new cases per 100,000 or >50 total new cases per 100,000 in the past 7 days), masking remains an effective mitigation strategy when indoors, especially when physical distancing is not possible, and outbreaks exist," she said.

Rossman noted that the CDC reported an uptick in cases last week, but that could be easily explained.

"This is related to delayed reporting of certain cases. On Feb. 16, Maryland reported historical cases at the county level that currently appear as an artificial spike in community transmission, but which actually reflect cases from December 2021-February 2022. CDC and Maryland are collaborating to allocate these data to their correct dates. This data import will affect our case rate metrics until the issue is resolved making cases rate data imprecise. To help us adjust for this data issue, we analyzed case rate trends prior to Feb. 16 and project an average 35 percent decline over the next several weeks. I am cautiously optimistic that the improvement in our metrics over the next two weeks may allow further relaxation of masking policies, including in schools," Rossman said.

Get tested

The Howard County Health Department provides PCR testing for COVID-19 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. using the FDA-authorized Azova saliva test kit. Self-collection testing is administered on-site or take-home test kits are available for testing.

Test results are available in two to four days. These tests can be used for routine employment testing, pre-travel testing, or school quarantine/isolation. These tests are free but appointments are required and can be made at https://howardcounty.azova.com/.

Rapid testing and PCR testing will be available to residents at no upfront cost through a partnership with First Call Urgent Care and Centennial Medical Group at these sites each week. These testing sites are open seven days a week from noon to 7 p.m.

Test kits also can be purchased from some retailers and pharmacies.

Get vaccinated

You can register for vaccines at this site and a variety of sites by using the state vaccine locator at https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/pages/vaccine#locator.

Find a county-operated clinic and register here.