County Sees Second-Smallest Daily Rise In Cases Since 2020

BETHESDA, MD — Montgomery County has recorded its second-smallest increase in COVID-19 infections since early October, with a rise of 56 new cases on Monday.

The last time cases were this low was on Oct. 6, 2020 — when the same number of new infections were recorded.

Monday's addition pushes the countywide total to 69,476 cases.

Two more coronavirus-related fatalities were added overnight, which brings the local death toll since the pandemic began to 1,471.

Health officials believe that 46 others had the virus, but died before ever getting tested. For now, they are considered "probable deaths." They won't be added to the official fatality count until confirmatory lab tests are performed.

Montgomery County — which is home to roughly 1 million people — continues to have the highest number of deaths in the state. It also has the second-highest number of confirmed cases, after Prince George's County, which has 82,405, according to the latest figures.

Across Maryland, there have been 443,814 cases, 8,483 confirmed deaths, and 187 "probable deaths." Of the 1,115 people currently being hospitalized statewide, 265 are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

The positivity rate measures the percentage of COVID-19 tests that come back positive in a one-week span. According to data released Monday, Maryland's test positivity rate is 4.51 percent. In Montgomery County, it's 2.45 percent — down from 2.73 percent the day before.

To date, Maryland has administered 4,372,769 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Among those, 2,525,832 were first doses and 1,666,320 were second doses.

In Montgomery County, 529,927 residents (50.4 percent) have received their first dose. A total of 352,553 residents (33.6 percent) have already gotten their second and final shot.