Daily Caseload Stubbornly High As MoCo Struggles To Reach Phase 3

BETHESDA, MD — For the tenth time in two weeks, Montgomery County has added more than 100 new COVID-19 cases overnight, according to data released by the Maryland Department of Health.

Friday's additions — of 105 infections — pushes the local total to 24,877. That's three times higher than the permissible limit county health officials set to move on to phase three.

The county has typically reopened at a slower rate than the rest of the state, due to higher COVID-19 numbers. Health officials say the county will not enter phase three until they see low and medium transmission levels — or 10 to 35 cases a day. Over the last three months, daily COVID-19 cases have hovered between 47 and 171.

Unlike case totals, the number of people dying daily from COVID-19 in recent months has been between zero and five.

On Friday, the county did not record any new deaths. The death toll remains at 823.

The latest fatality count, however, does not include the 40 others whose deaths were linked to the virus, but never confirmed by a lab test. For now, they are considered "probable deaths."

Montgomery County — Maryland's most populous jurisdiction — has the second highest number of deaths and cases in the state, after Prince George's County, which has 829 fatalities and 31,999 infections, according to the latest figures.

Across Maryland, there have been 138,691 cases, 3,932 confirmed deaths, and 146 "probable deaths." Of the 458 people that are currently hospitalized, 122 are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).