A tenth of Maryland’s population has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, state health officials reported Friday
Meanwhile, the state’s seven-day testing positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that return positive results, dropped to 4.87% Friday, below the 5% benchmark for the first time since Nov. 8. A month ago, the figure was 8.76%.
With another 18,230 Marylanders receiving their first COVID-19 vaccination, more than 818,0000 vaccine doses have been administered overall, according to state data. Those additions mean 10.01% of residents have received at least one shot, while 3.52% of Marylanders have received both of the needed doses and are considered fully vaccinated.
The 33,308 doses administered Thursday were the state’s second most for a single day. The total raised Maryland’s seven-day average to 26,346 per day, its highest point yet.
Of the nearly 600,000 first-dose recipients whose ages were known, 48.4% were at least 60 years old. Yet more than 70% of the 213,000 Marylanders who are fully vaccinated are younger than 60, likely the health care workers, first responders, educators and essential workers who are eligible for vaccination.
Seventeen of Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions already have partly vaccinated at least 10% of their respective populations, though three of the state’s four most populated jurisdictions — Montgomery County, Prince George’s County and Baltimore City — are among those that have yet to reach that mark. Prince George’s remains the only county yet to reach 5%. At 8.8%, Baltimore has given the first dose to the the third-lowest percent of its population among jurisdictions.
On the same day the state crossed the 10% threshold in vaccinations, Maryland health officials reported 1,112 new cases of the coronavirus and 36 more deaths associated with COVID-19. The state has reported fewer than 1,200 new cases for five straight days, the longest such streak since three-plus months between July 26 and Nov. 5.
Those additions bring Maryland to 368,977 infections and 7,324 fatalities since the state reported its first case in March 2020.
The state’s decline in seven-day positivity rate includes consecutive days with a single-day positivity rate beneath 4%. Before this, the state had not reported a day where fewer than 4% of the test results were positive since Nov. 2.
There are 1,225 patients in Maryland hospitals facing the virus’ effects — the lowest point since Nov. 20 — with 326 in intensive care, according to the state. The day prior, those figures were 1,272 and 324, respectively.