ANNAPOLIS, Md. — As positivity rates continue to climb in Maryland, Virginia is preparing to transition into its next phase of reopening.
Maryland has seen its positivity rate increase every week in March. According to Maryland Department of Health data, the state’s positivity rate was at 3.24 percent on March 3. On March 29, the positivity rate was measured at 5.24 percent.
On March 12, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan gave Maryland counties the go-ahead to lift their capacity limits at dining establishments and retail stores while keeping in place mask and social distancing regulations. Most Maryland counties in the D.C. area decided to follow the Governor’s order.
However, Hogan's office said the order is not to blame for Maryland’s recent COVID-19 uptick.
“We have not seen any connections to recent orders,” said Hogan’s Communications Director Michael Ricci. “That wouldn't really explain the uptick in Baltimore City, which kept its limits in place an additional two weeks.”
Instead, Ricci said travel appears to be causing the state’s case rate to increase.
“The country is in a race between the vaccines and the variants, and it's important for people to get vaccinated when it is their turn,” he said. “Through contact tracing, we have detected an increase in cases connected to travel, particularly to Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. We have a public health advisory in place to encourage travel-related testing.”
But Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said if travel is to blame, he is even more concerned about what lays ahead for the state.
“There were no travel events,” he said. “The big travel events are the ones that are going to happen this week around the holidays that are coming up in spring break,” he said. “If [the Governor] is attributing that to travel, I'm dreading what's going to happen when the results come in from this week's travel.
Montgomery County is Maryland’s largest jurisdiction. Its leaders chose to ease capacity restrictions at a slower rate than allowed by Hogan's office earlier this month.
Montgomery County has seen both its positivity and case rates increase since the beginning of March, according to Maryland Department of Health data.
On March 3, Montgomery County had an average case rate of 10.96 cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 2.83 percent. On March 29, the county had an average case rate of 12.28 cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 3.34 percent.
“Everybody's positivity rates are going up,” Elrich said. “It's hard not to relate that to when the decision was made to open and what happened after we opened.”
Elrich said he remains particularly concerned about the full reopening of restaurants across the state.
He said the loosening of regulations in businesses where people frequently take off their masks can lead to increased transmission.
“If our rules had been everybody else's rules, you would not have the case rate you have today,” Elrich said. “You would not have the positivity rate.”
He added that he understands that people are not happy about living a restricted life, but he says such measures are needed to keep people safe.
“I admit that we made a conscious decision to put people's lives first even if it created more business hardships than in other counties,” he said. “But the result of that is that we've been able to keep our cases down better than a lot of other places.”
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam recently announced the commonwealth would allow certain businesses to ease their capacity restrictions on Thursday.
“With increased vaccination capacity and our health metrics continuing to trend the right direction, we can safely take these targeted steps to ease certain mitigation measures,” said Northam. “Virginians have come so far over the past year, and now is not the time to simply throw the doors open or let down our guard. While some capacity limits will be increased, we must all remember to stay vigilant and work together to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.”
Here are some of the changes Virginians can expect:
- Entertainment Venues
- Indoor venues must operate at 30 percent capacity or with a maximum of 500 people, an increase from the current cap of 250 people.
- Outdoor venues must operate at 30 percent capacity, with no specific cap on the number of attendees. These venues were previously limited to 30 percent capacity or up to 1,000 attendees, whichever was fewer.
- Recreational Sporting Events:
- The number of spectators allowed at indoor recreational sporting events will increase from 25 to 100 people per field or 30 percent capacity, whichever is less.
- The number of spectators allowed at outdoor recreation sporting events will increase from 250 to 500 people per field or 30 percent capacity, whichever is less.
- Social Gatherings:
- The maximum number of individuals permitted in a social gathering will increase to 50 people for indoor settings and 100 people for outdoor settings.
- Social gatherings are currently limited to 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors.
WUSA9 reached out to Governor Northam’s office to see if he had any concerns about the state’s plans to transition to another phase of reopening despite rising COVID case rates across the nation.
“This is exactly why Virginia is taking a measured and step-by-step approach to easing restrictions,” said Northam’s press secretary Alena Yarmosky. “For example, after April 1 we will still have a social gathering ban in place & capacity limited to 30% at entertainment venues, in addition to a universal mask mandate and ongoing guidelines in place for restaurants, salons, and gyms.”
According to the Virginia Department of Health, Virginia’s seven-day case average has been on the rise since March 13. On that date, it was at 1,289 cases. On March 30, it was at 1,530.
The City of Alexandria has seen its seven-day case average decrease over the last ten days.
Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson said the city will continue to move with caution as it moves into Virginia’s next phase of reopening.
“We should celebrate the fact that we're in a place where we can ease restrictions but we also can't completely let our guard down,” he said. “And, I think you heard that from Washington, from the President the other day, and I think you've heard that from the CDC yesterday. You're hearing that from every level. So, I think it's good news, but we cannot let our guard down.”
Wilson says the presence of vaccines has helped Alexandria keep its case rate down so far.
“We saw a very large increase in vaccine supply that we received in the state this week,” he said. “We're expecting another very large increase next week. We still have a considerable backlog of folks who are eligible that we want to get vaccinated. But, obviously, it's kind of a race where you're going to continue to see folks getting vaccinated and that should continue to slow the spread of the virus out in the community.”