Montgomery County May Reopen As Early As Next Week: Elrich

BETHESDA, MD — Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said Wednesday that he may partially lift coronavirus restrictions as early as next week, saying the county has seen slight improvements in some of the benchmarks used to determine when the region can safely reopen.

"We're not going to do it (this week) on Friday," Elrich, a Democrat, told reporters during a virtual press briefing. "My guess is it's going to happen early next week. And it might wind up on the same day as Prince George's County."

Montgomery and Prince George's counties — which did not reopen with the rest of Maryland on May 15 — continue to have the highest number of coronavirus deaths and cases in the state. As of Wednesday, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 535 Montgomery County residents and infected 10,467.

Prince George's County has recorded 14,100 positive infections and 496 fatalities. It intends to reopen in some form early next month.

Elrich did not specify when Montgomery County will begin phase one of reopening, explaining that he wants to hear what Gov. Larry Hogan announces at 5 p.m. and what Prince George's County does this week.

"The problem is dates change. D.C.'s date was originally a date farther out," Elrich said during Wednesday's media briefing. "Every time (dates change), people either get angry — they certainly get frustrated — and they think you broke a promise. To me, this is not a promise-type thing."

He added that the county is heading in the right direction and will be happy to reopen next week if the data says it's safe to do so.

Montgomery County is monitoring a number of key metrics for reopening, including confirmed cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and percentage of ventilators in use. The goal is to see a 14-day downward trend.

Data for those benchmarks can be found on the county's online coronavirus dashboard — which is updated daily around 2 p.m.

As of Wednesday, the county has met two of seven reopening benchmarks: the rate at which ICU beds are being used (less than 80 percent) and the rate at which ventilators are being used (less than 70 percent).

According to County Health Officer Dr. Travis Gayles, the data calculates a three-day rolling average because of potential outliers, like the occasional 24-hour spikes in cases, deaths, and hospitalizations.

While the county has not met its 14-day goal with most metrics, Gayles said he is cautiously optimistic about the data.

In 11 of the past 14 days, the county has seen a decline in its hospitalization rate, as well as "significant improvements" in the number of coronavirus-related fatalities, Gayles said.

"Our overall average now is in the single-digits. In fact...over the last week, the total number of deaths have all been below 10," he said. "Again, (we're) moving in the right direction."

The acute hospital bed rate, however, is lagging behind all other benchmarks, according to Gayles. In a two-week span, the county was only able to meet its benchmark once.

"Our goal is to be below 70 percent," Gayles said. "When you look at the dashboard, our three-day average is 70 percent. Yesterday, our three-day average was...I think, 71.4 percent. So we've been very close to that target number."

Gayles added that officials are working to add 200 more hospital beds over the next three weeks — which he says will help the county meet that benchmark of 70 percent or less.

Here's how the county is doing, as of Wednesday: