COVID-19: A look at cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the current indoor dining capacity at Maryland restaurants. They are currently open at 75% capacity.

SALISBURY, Md. — Daily life on Delmarva amid the COVID-19 pandemic might look different depending on where you live.

Maryland has taken another step toward lifting restrictions by allowing restaurants to open at 75% capacity, yet the city of Salisbury has imposed new rules in response to a spike in cases.

All indoor gatherings in the city have been limited to 15 people, while outdoor gatherings aren't allowed to exceed 50. These limits don't apply to retail stores, offices, restaurants, youth sports or any gatherings for a spiritual purpose.

The order will be re-examined in about a week and a half as fresher data becomes available about the virus's spread in the area.

For several months, state and local leaders have been cautiously monitoring key metrics like hospitalizations, deaths and positivity rates.

Here's the latest data from Maryland, Delaware and Virginia as of Monday, Sept. 21:

Maryland

Over the last week, Maryland has gained 3,922 COVID-19 cases.

The three Lower Eastern Shore counties account for about 2.6% of those 120,568 infections.

More than 52,000 residents of those jurisdictions have been tested for the novel virus to date, with more than half of them in Wicomico County, which has the largest population of the three and the greatest number of cases.

Here’s how many cases have been identified in each of the Lower Shore counties, along with probable and confirmed deaths in parentheses:

• Wicomico County - 1,902 (48)
• Worcester County - 1,002 (26)
• Somerset County - 246 (4)

That’s an additional 124 cases for Wicomico, 54 for Worcester and 26 for Somerset in the past seven days. Their death tolls have seen no change for this period.

The state’s hospitalizations have declined by nearly 25% so far in September. They’re down to 290 Monday morning compared to 385 at the start of the month.

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Just under a quarter of those patients are in intensive care. The number of COVID-19 patients in an ICU has been below the triple digits since Sept. 8.

That metric has come down from 90 to 71 in the last week alone, though there was a small bump between Sunday and Monday, from 68 to 71.

Virginia

Virginia’s Eastern Shore Health District has reported two more virus-related fatalities in the last seven days — both in Northampton County.

That puts Northampton’s death toll at 31, while Accomack County has remained at 19 deaths since Aug. 28.

The region's combined case count is up by seven for this period. Northampton added one infection for a total of 305, and Accomack added 6, bringing its total to 1,167.

The statewide case total jumped by 6,567 during that time to 141,138.

Hospitalizations are at 995 as of Monday morning. That’s a bump from 939 Sunday, but still down from 1,006 a week ago.

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The metric initially started to climb slightly, increasing from 1,006 to 1,027 between Sept. 14 and Sept. 27, but then started to come back down.

On the Shore, there’s been one new hospitalization reported for this seven-day period, and it was in Accomack County.

Delaware

Delaware has reported another 730 COVID-19 cases since last Monday.

There have been 130 more infections identified for Sussex County, which is at 6,649 cases.

The county represents about 3.4% of the state’s overall 19,667 cases. Fatalities for Sussex have increased by five in the last week, reaching 203.

The county’s death toll now makes up roughly 32% of Delaware’s 637 COVID-19 fatalities. That statewide sum includes six deaths that were added Monday as a result of a recent review of death records. Those six deaths occurred between April and August, but were not previously reported to state health officials.

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The state’s seven-day average for people who have tested positive fell below 7% Monday for the first time since it reached 7.1% a week ago. That metric has been trending upward over at least the last two weeks.

Current hospitalizations across the state have come down from 61 a week to 53 as of Monday’s data release. There are currently 17 patients in critical care.

Universities on the Eastern Shore

Since Salisbury University's last positive test results were published Sept. 11, another nine cases have been identified among members of the campus community.

That puts SU's case count at 419 since testing began Aug. 11, which makes for an overall positivity rate of 4.6%. Nearly 9,200 people have been tested so far as a result of the university's testing efforts.

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The latest weekly positivity rate for the campus is at 6.1% for Sept. 9 through Sept. 15.*

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore has had seven more people test positive.

The campus' case tally is up to 30 as of Sept. 18, bringing the positivity rate to 0.76%.

*The weekly positivity rate for Salisbury University is calculated using the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center Methodology, which is based on the number of people tested. This differs from the Maryland state methodology that bases the positivity rate on tests administered.