Maryland officials reported 520 new cases of the coronavirus Tuesday as well as seven more deaths.
The state has now confirmed 101,235 infections and 3,511 fatalities from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. COVID-19 is believed to be the cause of another 139 deaths in the state, but laboratory tests never confirmed those cases.
Maryland hospitals had 453 virus patients as of Tuesday morning, an increase of 18 from Monday, with 102 of those cases requiring intensive care, a decline of four.
Maryland reported its seven-day average testing positivity rate, the percent of tests for the virus that return a positive result, to be a pandemic-low 3.21%. The state’s reported rate has been below 5% every day since June 26 and below 4% all but one day since Aug. 7.
Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus resource center, which calculates positivity rate in differently than the state, had Maryland’s seven-day rolling positivity rate as 4.42% through Monday’s data, the fourth straight day its figure for the state has been beneath 5%. That’s the 15th lowest among all states.
Hopkins calculates its rate using cases, while Maryland’s approach uses tests, meaning multiple tests results on the same individuals are included as long as the tests were not performed the same day at the same location.
The World Health Organization recommends 14 straight days of positivity rates beneath 5% before governments ease virus-related restrictions. The CDC guidelines for entering a third reopening phase call for 14 straight days with a positivity rate beneath 10% with a median test result return time of fewer than two days.
The state is not reporting its average test return time and some residents have complained of long delays in getting results.
Maryland reported slightly more than 16,000 test results Tuesday, the state’s lowest daily total since July 29. In all, the state has reported 1.66 million test results, with about 494,000 of those tests performed on individuals who had been tested before. Of the 1.17 million Marylanders tested, 8.7% received a positive result at least once.
Through Monday’s data, Maryland has performed the 23rd most tests per capita, while having the 18th most cases and 12th most deaths per capita, according to Hopkins.
Prince George’s County’s seven-day average positivity rate of 5.2% is the highest among Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions, but the figure represents a new low mark for the county. Among the other 23 jurisdictions, only Charles and Queen Anne counties’ rates exceed 4%. Charles County has less than a 10th of the total cases Prince George’s County has reported, while Queen Anne’s County has fewer than 500 total cases.
Baltimore’s seven-day rate of 3.93% marked the first time the city fell below 4%, according to state data. Baltimore (3.41%), Howard (2.81%) and Carroll (1.2%) counties also posted pandemic-low rates. At 2.44%, Anne Arundel had a slight increase from Monday’s low, while Harford’s rate declined for a third straight day to 3.25%.
Of Tuesday’s new cases, 38.7% were in residents in their 20s and 30s. Maryland’s seven-day average positivity rates for residents older than 35 (2.81%) and younger than 35 (3.9%) were both at the lowest points the state has reported since the pandemic began in March.
Including three victims whose ages weren’t previously reported, eight of 10 who died were at least 70 years old.
There were 619 cases for which the state reported race for the first time Tuesday. Of those, 62% were in residents who are Black or Hispanic, groups that combine to be about 42% of the state’s overall population, according to U.S. census data. Black and Hispanic residents account for nearly two-thirds of Maryland’s overall caseload among cases where race is known.
Maryland does not have race data available for about 15% of its cases. The races of nine of the virus’ victims in the state have not been reported.