MoCo Reports Zero New Coronavirus Deaths; Cases Hit 19,071

ROCKVILLE, MD — Montgomery County registered 68 new coronavirus cases and zero new deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the Maryland Department of Health.

Monday's update brings the countywide total to 19,071 infections and 771 fatalities. Another 39 people may have died from COVID-19 — the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus — but a laboratory test is still needed to confirm the cause of death.

The county — which is home to roughly 1.1 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 24,719, according to the latest figures.

Montgomery County officials say they will not enter phase three of its reopening plan until they see improvements in data, including a sustained decrease or improvement in the number of daily cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and the test positivity rate.

Montgomery County moved into phase two of its recovery plan in mid-June. In this stage, residents can swim in county pools, more people can gather outside, and restaurants and bars can resume indoor dining — given that they follow county and state reopening restrictions.

To advance to phase three, officials say the county needs to see daily case numbers drop to the teens or 20s, as well as a steady decline in the test positivity rate, which now sits at 2.84 percent.

Aside from occasional spikes in new infections (as high as 171) over the last two months, daily cases have plateaued in the 70s and 80s.

Click here to see how well Montgomery County is doing.

Statewide, there have been 100,715 confirmed cases, 3,504 deaths, and 137 "probable deaths."

Of the 435 currently hospitalized for the virus, 106 are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).