14 days after the close of the Thanksgiving holiday break, and Covid-19 continues to spread in Maryland. The hardest-hit counties right now are in Western Maryland, which has seen dramatic spikes in confirmed cases over the past month and have resulted in, by far, the most widespread outbreaks seen among Maryland counties since the start of the pandemic.
In Allegany County, there were more than 20 confirmed cases in the past 14 days per 1,000 people as of Dec. 13. Likewise in Garrett County, where the 14-day per-capita count stood at nearly 14 per 1,000 people. It’s also high in Washington County, where the case rate is approaching 10 per 1,000 people. On the other side of the state on the Chesapeake Bay, Somerset County claims the second-worst two-week confirmed infection rate, with more than 18 cases per 1,000 people.
Here in Prince George’s County, the two-week per-capita infection rate stood at nearly 7 cases per 1,000 residents, more than double the same rate a month before when it stood at 3 cases per 1,000 residents.
While the above map shows you a snapshot of the current state of covid outbreaks in Maryland, the map below shows how these numbers have changed over the past two weeks. Notably, many ZIP codes in Western Maryland are showing declines in the per-capita rate of confirmed cases. But it’s a bit of a mixed bag, with declining numbers seen in many of the farthest-west ZIP codes, but rising numbers still persistent in large parts of Washington County. Likewise, confirmed infection rates are rising quickly in many ZIP codes near the Delaware border.
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