Maryland added nearly 2,700 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. The state has had more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases daily for 36 straight days, more than 1,500 cases for 27 days in a row, and more than 2,000 cases for nine days.
The state’s 7-day positivity rate remained below 8%. The rate has been more than 5% for 31 consecutive days, more than 6% for 26 straight days, and more than 7% for the past nine days.
The number of patients currently hospitalized has topped 1,000 for 23 straight days and has been more than 1,500 for 10 consecutive days.
Key points for today
• Dorchester County COVID-19 cases increased by 15 to 1,137, according to the county health department.
• The county’s 7-day average positivity rate is 5.3%.
• The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Maryland is now at 222,653, an increase of 2,692 in the last 24 hours.
• In the last 24 hours, 46 people died as a result of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total to 4,801.
The Spy obtains information for this chart between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Statewide data is updated about 10 a.m. each day; counties may update data throughout the day until 5 p.m. Johns Hopkins updates its data throughout the day.
* Maryland and Cecil County report the total released from isolation.
** For Kent County deaths, The Spy reports its own tally based on the number of state-reported deaths within Kent County facilities and the number of non-facility deaths. For Queen Anne’s County deaths, The Spy reports the total deaths listed on the county’s website. There are discrepancies among state and county statistics concerning total deaths and facility deaths.
Key metrics
• The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients increased by 62 over the last 24 hours.
• There currently are 1,715 people hospitalized — 1,299 in acute care and 416 in intensive care.
• Of the 36,013 test results received Dec. 8, 8.98% were positive. The 7-day positivity rate was 7.74%.
For additional COVID-19 graphics and links to resources, click here.
Additional information
• A total of 4,806,845 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Maryland; this number does not represent the total number of patients tested as some patients have been tested multiple times. The state reports 2,267,585 people have tested negative.
• Of the state’s 222,653 cases, 22,622 patients have ever been hospitalized for treatment; 8,833 have been released from isolation.
The graph below shows the average positivity rate for the five Mid-Shore counties.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.