WASHINGTON — It’s Tuesday, December 29, and Montgomery County – where more people have died from COVID-19 than anywhere else in Maryland – has finally received enough doses of the vaccine to being inoculating health care workers
Chief Health Officer Dr. Travis Gayles said Tuesday during the county’s weekly coronavirus update that the health department had received 4,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine within the past 24 hours.
The doses will be used at two pop-up vaccination clinics this week
- 1,750 doses for front-line health care workers, to be distributed at the White Oak Recreation Center tomorrow and Thursday.
- 750 doses for first responders, which will be administered at the Public Safety Training Academy on Thursday.
Last week, the county was able to use its first 100 doses to vaccine more than 40 members of its first-line vaccination team, who will be manning the vaccination clinics going forward.
If you’re just here for the numbers, here’s how things look today:
- D.C. reported 193 new cases and 4 new deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday.
- Maryland reported 1,878 new cases and 63 new deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday. That’s the state’s highest single-day death count in two weeks.
- Virginia reported 4,122 new cases and 59 new deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday. That’s the fifth highest day for cases and the second highest day for deaths since the pandemic began.
How are things in the DMV?
In D.C., the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 continues to rise. As of Sunday, that number was up to 12.6% – the highest it’s been since June.
If you look at DC Health’s coronavirus data portal regularly, you might have noticed that it does show today a significant drop in the number of acute care beds being used in the city. Normally that would be good news, but there have been several such sudden drops over the past few months, and they all have immediately been erased within a day or two – meaning it likely has more to do with the reporting of the numbers, versus an actual change in the number of hospitalized patients themselves. However, if that metric stays down, I’ll be right there out front celebrating.
Over in Maryland’s metro D.C. counties, Prince George’s County has seen a sustained decrease in average cases over the past three weeks. As of Tuesday, the county was averaging 384 new cases a day – down 21% from December 10. Montgomery County is also down from where it was three weeks ago, but has seen its numbers increasing again over the past several days.
And in Virginia, the commonwealth is now reporting an average testing positivity of more than 12% for the first time since May. The commonwealth’s average testing percent positivity has been above the 10% goalpost to begin reopening for the entirety of December.