MoCo's Coronavirus Positivity Rate Down More Than 91% Since April

BETHESDA, MD — Montgomery County's coronavirus positivity rate dropped to 2.82 percent on Tuesday, down more than 91 percent from its peak on April 20, Gov. Larry Hogan said.

Six of the state's 24 jurisdictions — including Prince George's, Worcester, Calvert, and Charles counties — are reporting positivity rates over 5 percent, the latest data shows. The statewide positivity rate now stands at 4.44 percent.

Montgomery County's positivity rate has been declining every day for the last four days. On Tuesday, the positivity rate was 3.14 percent. On Sunday it was 3.5 percent; and on Saturday it was 3.55 percent.

A declining positivity rate is one of 10 public health metrics county officials are using to determine when and how to reopen. More benchmarks can be found here.

On Tuesday, the county added 68 new coronavirus cases. That pushes the local total to 17,910.

Meanwhile, another person has died from COVID-19. The death toll now stands at 755.

The latest fatality count, however, does not include the 39 others whose deaths were linked to the virus, but never confirmed by a lab test. They are considered "probable deaths" — and will not be added to the official total until a lab can confirm the cause of death.

Statewide, there have been 91,854 confirmed cases, 3,396 deaths, and 134 "probable deaths."

Of the 547 people hospitalized for the virus, 137 are in intensive care.

On Tuesday, Hogan announced that Maryland and six other states have banded together to form a first-of-its-kind coronavirus testing pact.

The bipartisan interstate pact — which involves Maryland, Virginia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Ohio — aims to expand access to rapid point-of-care antigen tests.

"By banding together, the states are demonstrating to private manufacturers that there is significant demand to scale up the production of these tests, which deliver results in 15-20 minutes," Hogan said in a statement. "With today's agreement, the states are in discussions with Becton Dickinson and Quidel — the U.S. manufacturers of antigen tests that have already been authorized by the FDA — to purchase 500,000 tests per state, for a total of three million tests."