Although COVID-19 positivity figures continue to move in the right direction in the region, a public health expert said the numbers are not all they seem to be.
Although COVID-19 positivity figures continue to move in the right direction in the region, a public health expert said the numbers are not all they seem to be.
Maryland announced that its daily percentage of positive tests over the last few days has dropped to record highs – to 3.23%.
Dr Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean of public health and community involvement practice at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, said one number does not show the whole picture.
“Maryland has a relatively low percentage of positives, but identifies many cases, about 1,000 per day,” Sharfstein said. “That’s a big number for the state of Maryland – it’s more than Virginia identifies, and Virginia is a larger state.”
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Some areas of Maryland, such as Baltimore, are seeing an increase in cases. Sharfstein also notes that the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maryland has recently increased.
“I think the situation in Maryland is: We’re down from a very high peak, but we’re still seeing a fair amount of transmission, and we’re not in the clear at all,” he said.
As far as Northern Virginia is concerned, there is a slightly higher percentage positive rate, at 6%, but a lower number of cases is identified. However, he points out that there has also been an increase in the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Virginia.
Sharfstein said the image in DC is better.
“The number of cases per population is lower, hospitalizations have fallen and are slowing down, and the percentage positive is low,” he said. “All the metrics look a little better than ever.”
The District has had a positive rate of about 3% for more than a month, apparently hitting a plateau. Sharfstein thinks this has something to do with his neighbors.
“The challenge DC has is that it’s located in a region and there’s a lot of virus in the region,” Sharfstein said. “You really would not expect DC to be remarkably low when you see these higher rates in Virginia and Maryland.”
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