COVID-19 In Maryland: 10 Deaths Reported Sunday As Hospitalizations Continue To Decline

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- Maryland added 649 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday as hospitalizations and the positivity rate continues to decline, according to information released from the state health department.

Over 4.8 million vaccine doses have been administered across the state as of Sunday morning.

The state reported 10 additional COVID-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours bring the total to 8,585 since the pandemic began

Hospitalizations went down by 49, dropping the total number to 960. Of those, 261 people are in ICU beds and 699 are in acute care.

The state's positivity rate went down to 3.64%. The state conducted 25,981 coronavirus tests in the last day.

Since the pandemic began in the state there have been 448,989 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

As of Sunday morning, there are 2,109,609 Marylanders fully vaccinated for the virus. The state has administered 4,877,015 doses so far. Of those, 2,767,406 are first doses, with 13,004 administered in the last day. They have administered 1,919,136 second doses, with 15,433 in the last day.

The state began to administer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine again last weekend, after the CDC and FDA lifted their pause on the vaccine due to a rare blood clot found in some women.

A total of 190,473 Marylanders have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 350 in the last day.

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"So this is good news, it seems like we're finally making some progress and breaking out of the case plateau that we have been seeing for quite a bit," said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

But we're not out of the woods just yet, with five states seeing an increase in cases for two or more weeks. Dr. Nuzzo said they are also seeing an increase in COVID-related hospitalization among young adults.

"So (it's) really important that we continue making progress in vaccinating people who are younger," Dr. Nuzzo said.

While the number of shots given each day remains high in Maryland, Dr. Bill Moss, the executive director of the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center said nationally there is a decline, from a peak of over four million doses on April 1 to now hovering around 2.5 million a day.

"Certainly in some places we're the supply that out strips the demand," Dr. Moss said.

They're also seeing some people choosing to only get one dose of the two dose shoots.. Pfizer and Moderna.

"Those people will have some protection but certainly now the full protection afforded by two doses of the vaccine," Dr. Moss said.

As numbers on the home front give reasons to be optimistic, countries including India, Japan, Thailand are being hit hard.

"I do very much worry about countries that haven't been able to protect their population with a vaccine. It's really urgent that we help them do that," Dr. Nuzzo said.

Here's a breakdown of the numbers:

By Race and Ethnicity

For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.

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