COVID-19 hospitalizations have fallen consistently in Montgomery County this month from a peak three-day average of 480 on May 7, to a three-day average of 354 as of Sunday afternoon — a drop of about 26%.
There has also been a decline in COVID-19 emergency room visits and intensive care visits, according to the latest figures released Sunday afternoon on the county Department of Health and Human Services’ data dashboard.
The number of cases in the county increased to 10,111 on Monday morning, an increase of about 2% from Sunday’s total, according to the Maryland Department of Health.
The daily percentage increase has been in single digits for all but two days since April 11. Before that, it was consistently in double digits.
The county also added four confirmed deaths on Monday, bringing the total to 526.
Another 36 deaths are considered “probable,” meaning that’s the cause listed on a death certificates but a lab test has not confirmed it.
The county’s dashboard, which is updated each day at noon, tracks conditions that Dr. Travis Gayles, the county’s health officer, has set for reopening parts of the county. County Executive Marc Elrich said Wednesday during a media briefing that the county could potentially begin a partial reopening within the next week or two if some of the benchmarks show positive trends.
The data tracks three-day averages to determine trends because of some “outliers” in the data. The metrics also measure the number of days out of the last 14 that had improvement. The criteria must at least “show substantial progress” to move forward with a reopening, according to the county’s dashboard.
The status of the conditions as of data posted Sunday afternoon were:
● Number of new confirmed positive cases each day: 221 (three-day average); eight declining days out of the last 14
● Number of COVID-19 new deaths each day: 10 (three-day average); eight declining days
● COVID-19 related hospitalizations: 354 (three-day average); 11 declining days
● Number of COVID-19 related emergency room patients: 14 (three-day average); six declining days
● COVID-19 related intensive-care unit hospitalizations: 121 (three-day average); nine declining days
● Acute care bed utilization rate: 72% (three-day average); the county benchmark of 70% or less has been met for 1 of the last 14 days
● Percentage of ventilators in use: 52% (three-day average); the county benchmark of 70% or less has been met for 14 straight days
There have been 47,152 COVID-19 cases across the state as of Monday, an increase of about 2% from Sunday’s total. There were 2,187 confirmed deaths in the state, and another 115 considered “probable.”
Montgomery County’s number of deaths is the highest in the state. The county is second in number of cases behind Prince George’s, which has had 13,726 as of Monday.
On Monday, there were 1,279 COVID-19 patients in the hospital in the state, which included 762 in acute care and 517 in intensive care.
The 80+ age group has had the most deaths, with 997. The age groups with the most cases are 30 to 39, with 8,728 cases, and 40 to 49, with 8,546 cases.
The race and ethnicity breakdown for the number of cases is:
• African American (13,922 cases, 909 confirmed deaths)
• White (9,359 cases, 913 confirmed deaths)
• Hispanic (11,628 cases, 194 confirmed deaths)
• Asian (895 cases, 83 confirmed deaths)
• Other (2,295 cases, 29 confirmed deaths)
• Data not available (9,053 cases, 59 confirmed deaths)
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For other Bethesda Beat coverage of the coronavirus, click here.
To see a timeline of major coronavirus developments in Maryland and Montgomery County, click here.
