WASHINGTON — It’s Friday, December 11, and you deserve some good news, so here’s what I’ve got: In D.C., for the first time in weeks the city’s average wait for coronavirus test results has dropped below three days.
Yes, it’s been pretty slim pickings on the good news front in the DMV this week. Maryland and Virginia have both set multiple new COVID-19 hospitalization records this week alone, and the commonwealth and multiple counties in Maryland issued new restrictions – some going so far as re-closing indoor dining – in an attempt to curb the highest case counts the DMV has seen to date.
Nationally, of course, there was a big bright spot this week: On Thursday the FDA’s Advisory Committee recommended the agency grant approval for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for people 16 and older. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday morning the FDA had informed Pfizer the agency intended to follow that recommendation and authorize the vaccine – meaning doses could begin arriving in the DMV as early as next week.
In case you’re not up to speed on how your area will distribute the vaccine, we’ve got you covered below:
If you’re just here looking for the numbers, here’s where things stand in the DMV:
- D.C. reported 259 new cases of the coronavirus and 1 new death on Friday. The city is now averaging 268 new cases of the virus a day.
- Maryland reported 2,616 new cases and 51 new deaths from the coronavirus on Friday. This is the first time since May that Maryland has reported more than 50 deaths in a single day.
- Virginia reported 3,395 new cases and 35 new deaths from the coronavirus on Friday. The commonwealth is now averaging 3,865 new cases a day – a new all-time high.
How are things in the DMV?
I’ve been beating the drum about hospitalization rates in the DMV since I started doing this daily blog back in November, and for good reason: it’s much more difficult to quickly scale up ICU bed capacity than it is to, say, open a new testing site or add additional hours.
On Nov. 16, when the first blog post published, on average 5% of patients in D.C. hospitals were COIVD-19 positive. DC Health considers the city to have sufficient hospital capacity if that number is 5% or lower.
Flash forward to Friday, and that number is now 9.2% -- inching ever closer to the 10% red line that means the city has insufficient hospital capacity.
In Maryland, in less than a month the state has seen coronavirus hospitalizations jump by 744 patients – a 75% increase. As of Friday, the state had set a new hospitalization record for three days straight.
In Frederick County alone, County Executive Jan Gardner this week said they saw hospitalizations jump by 25% in a single day. Gov. Larry Hogan said more than 100 surge beds are already in use to treat COIVD-19 patients in the state.
Finally, in Virginia, this week for the first time ever there were more than 2,000 patients in commonwealth hospitals for treatment of the coronavirus. Nearly 80% of non-surge ICU beds in the commonwealth are currently in use, and more than 200 COVID-19 patients are on ventilators.
Those hospitalization numbers are why, despite vaccines appearing on the horizon, DMV officials pleaded with people this week to continue following guidelines. In Maryland, the leaders of the state’s seven largest counties, plus Baltimore City, held a joint Zoom call to do just that.
During the call, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich laid out the situation in simple terms.
“Until [vaccines] are widespread,” Elrich said, “the only control we have over the spread of this virus is our own behavior.”