Spikes in COVID-19 hospitalizations in Maryland have triggered state-mandated action plans that include encouraging hospitals to postpone elective surgeries.
“Maryland has begun to see an uptick in our key health metrics, and we are increasingly concerned by the sharp rise in hospitalizations, which have doubled over the last three weeks,” Gov. Larry Hogan said in a news release.
The full Maryland Department of Health order includes hospitals being directed to update emergency plans and maximize use of regional hospitals and alternate care sites. A request is being considered to re-activate the licenses of recently retired doctors and to allow out of state health care professionals to practice in the state.
Under the order, health care providers are strongly encouraged to offer monoclonal antibody infusions to COVID-positive people, and hospitals are directed to set up infusion sites in communities and do infusions in patient’s homes.
D.C. hospitals also are seeing greater numbers of COVID-19 patients.
COVID-19 hospitalizations more than doubled over the past month from 44 on Nov. 8, compared to 101 on Dec. 7, according to the latest D.C. information available.
In Virginia, the rolling seven-day average number of COVID-19 hospitalizations is up 45.5% from Nov. 10 with 784 people hospitalized, compared to Dec. 10, when the number of hospitalizations statewide was 1,141.
Maryland COVID-19 hospitalizations exceeding 1,000 on Friday is what led to hospitals being told to activate plans “to prepared for current and future surges due to the convergence of the flu, and the Delta and Omicron variants,” according to the news release.
“State health officials are taking these additional actions as we continue to use every tool at our disposal to help Maryland hospitals have the resources they need to respond to this and future hospital surges,” Hogan said.
You can get detailed perspective on Virginia, Maryland and D.C. spikes and dips in cases, hospitalizations, deaths and COVID-19 infection rates by county online.
WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this report.
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Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
