Mask Mandate: Anne Arundel Government Reaches Decision As COVID-19 Spikes

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — Anne Arundel County does not currently plan to reinstate an indoor mask mandate, WJZ reported Tuesday. County Executive Steuart Pittman announced the news as COVID-19 infections surge once again.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Anne Arundel County currently has high community transmission. When coronavirus levels reach this threshold, the CDC recommends indoor masking in public places. Pittman, however, is monitoring other metrics to make this determination.

"We put our restrictions in place when our hospitals were threatened with overwhelming numbers,” Pittman said, according to WJZ. “We’ve always said that hospitalization numbers are the metric that we look at the most closely.”

Anne Arundel County Public Schools previously decided to recommend, but not require, masking and testing when schools have coronavirus outbreaks. More information on those AACPS guidelines is posted here.

RELATED: AACPS Suggests Masks For Schools With Outbreaks, Doesn't Require Them

COVID-19 Metrics Update

Maryland's case rate is now eight times higher than its recent low earlier this spring. The case rate on May 19 hit a recent high of 38 new infections per day per 100,000 residents. The rate now sits at 36.44. That's up from the recent minimum of 4.53 set on March 24. The case rate is still below its all-time high of 235.17 set on Jan. 8.

The state's positivity rate is 8.56 percent. The percent positivity was as high as 8.67 on May 23 and as low as 1.43 on March 21. The all-time high of 29.98 percent came on Jan. 5.

Maryland has 472 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Hospitalizations hit a recent high of 508 on May 26 and a recent low of 126 on April 1. The record maximum of 3,462 hospitalizations was set on Jan. 11.

About 95 percent of Maryland adults have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine. Around 92.4 percent of residents 5 and up have gotten one or more shots.

Maryland's population is 6,165,129. A total of 4,646,832 Marylanders are fully vaccinated. The state has given 2,390,780 booster doses.

Visit coronavirus.maryland.gov to explore all the pandemic data, which is updated every business day. Residents can schedule a vaccine at marylandvax.org.

To learn more about Pittman's face covering decision, read WJZ's full story.