Maryland reported 1,163 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 27 deaths Monday, including the state’s third victim younger than 10 years old.
Hospitalizations dropped for the fifth straight day to 1,437 patients, which is 34 fewer than the day before. The number of those being treated for COVID-19 in the state’s hospitals peaked at nearly 2,000 in January after hitting a low of 281 in September.
The state’s seven-day average positivity rate is 5.61%, down slightly from Sunday.
In the past 24 hours, an additional 7,411 people received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 1,320 people received their second dose. An estimated 7.541% of Marylanders have received their first dose, and only 1.463% have received their second, according to the state.
The pandemic has disproportionately affected Maryland’s minorities, but white people are receiving the bulk of the vaccines, the state reports.
Black people represent about 31% of all Marylanders and 35% of the state’s COVID-19 fatalities for which the patient’s race was known. But Black people have received only 13% of the vaccines for which the patient’s race was known. White people make up about 59% of the population and 51% of the confirmed deaths. But more white people have received their first shots — 289,716 — than all other racial groups combined.
The 52,565 white people in Maryland who have received their second vaccine far exceeds that of any other racial group; by contrast, 67,366 Black Marylanders have received their first shot.
Nine of the people who died of COVID-19 in the past day were white, five were Black, five were Asian and four were Latino; data was not available for the other four. The state says it lacks race data in 50,044 cases and 49 deaths.
Nearly 19% of Maryland’s new cases in the past 24 hours were reported in Prince George’s County, according to state data. The second-most populous county’s seven-day case rate is 35.14 per 100,000 people, higher than the statewide rate of 29.53 per 100,000.
The lagging vaccination rate in primarily Black Prince George’s also has underscored concerns about equitable access. Just 3.311% of the 909,000 people in the county have received a first dose of the county’s 30,107 vaccines, a marginal improvement from the day before.
That’s less than half of the number who have received their first dose in primarily-white Baltimore County, which leads the state in vaccinations. The 72,351 doses administered have reached about 8.7% of Baltimore County’s 827,000 residents. The county’s seven-day case rate is 28.58 per 100,000.
In Baltimore City, 6.831% of the roughly 609,000 residents have received their first dose and 1.77% have gotten their second. The city’s seven-day case rate is 24.09 per 100,000.
The highest vaccination rate in Maryland belongs to Talbot County, a mostly rural area on the Eastern Shore where one in three people are over 65. About 12.63% of the roughly 37,000 residents have received their first dose and 1.57% have received their second, according to state officials.
COVID-19 continues to be deadliest for the elderly and those with preexisting conditions or compromised immune systems. Patients 80 and older represented 13 of the new deaths announced Monday, but the victims in the past 24 hours also included a person in their 40s, four people in their 50s, two people in their 60s and six people in their 70s.
Maryland is in Phase 1C of its vaccination rollout plan, meaning that eligibility has been expanded to include people ages 65 to 74, more public safety and health workers, and certain essential workers. Some hospitalized, immunocompromised patients became eligible Monday.
Front-line health care workers, first responders, nursing home residents and staff, people 75 and older, some teachers and school staff, residents of assisted living facilities, those in group homes and other congregate living facilities, as well as high-risk inmates and jail detainees are also eligible for the vaccine.
If you are eligible, here’s a county-by-county guide to making a vaccine appointment. You can do your best to increase your odds by knowing your priority group and signing up online, although you should be prepared to wait, as COVID-19 vaccine rollout efforts have encountered delays in Maryland and across the country amid high demand.
But even getting a vaccine doesn’t mean you can ditch your mask and head out to a bar or restaurant.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Saturday that state officials detected the first case of the South African variant of the coronavirus, known as the B.1.351 variant, in the Baltimore area. The variant is not believed to cause a more serious illness, but officials worry that it may be more contagious and that vaccines in development by Novavax and Johnson & Johnson have proved less effective against it.
Seven cases of the more transmissible United Kingdom variant, known as B.1.1.7, have been identified in Maryland, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, Pfizer-BioNTech officials have reported that their current vaccine is likely to be just as effective against that variant.
The total number of confirmed cases in Maryland has reached 355,636 and the total number of deaths is now 6,978 since the state began tracking COVID-19 in March.