COVID-19 Cases Appear To Be On Decline In Montgomery County

BETHESDA, MD — Montgomery County's daily caseload continued on the downswing Monday, with health officials reporting 154 new infections overnight.

Monday's addition pushes the total number of cases since March to 60,633.

Since reaching their peak of 639 on Jan. 10, daily cases have been trending downward, according to the county's coronavirus dashboard.

So far in February, there have been five days in which the county has reported fewer than 200 cases. That only happened once in January, public health data showed.

Five more fatalities were reported in the county overnight, pushing the local death toll to 1,303.

Health officials believe that another 44 people had the virus, but died before ever getting tested. For now, they are considered "probable deaths." They won't be added to the official fatality count until confirmatory lab tests are performed.

Montgomery County — which is home to roughly 1 million people — continues to have the highest number of deaths in the state. It also has the second-highest number of confirmed cases, after Prince George's County, which has 69,779, according to the latest figures.

Across Maryland, there have been 364,553 coronavirus cases, 7,193 confirmed deaths, and 179 "probable deaths." Of the 1,413 patients being hospitalized for the disease statewide, 318 are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).