Maryland witnessed a new high Saturday in single-day COVID-19 cases since the state documented its first cases of the disease in early March.
The record addition of 2,321 newly-reported cases beats the previous daily record set Friday of 1,869 cases. Before this week, Maryland’s previous daily peak stood at 1,784 new cases, recorded on May 19.
On Nov. 4, Maryland’s number of new cases exceeded 1,000 new cases for the first time since early August. Its daily numbers have remained in the quadruple digits everyday from then on.
Hospitalizations linked to the disease have returned to levels previously seen in June and continue to rise rapidly. Maryland’s 7-day positivity rate — one indicator of the disease’s prevalence in a community — rose to 6.16% as of Saturday, also returning to June levels.
The state’s positivity rate peaked around 26% in April, and dropped thereafter with the imposing of lockdown measures and as testing becoming more widely available to residents without a doctor’s referral.
According to data made public by the Maryland Department of Health, the ongoing November outbreak marks the most pronounced increase in statewide positivity rate since the initial spring wave subsided around July.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan responded to the worsening metrics by ordering stronger restrictions for bars and restaurants as well as indoor gatherings that went into effect on Nov. 11.
Maryland also recently unveiled covidLINK, a contact tracing app that automatically sends notifications to users who have recently had contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19.
Gov. Larry Hogan said that more than 900,000 Marylanders have already signed up for the service.
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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.
