Montgomery County COVID-19 Metrics Show Improvements to Support Reopening

Montgomery County officials are tracking public health data to determine when and how to relax “restrictions and move toward reopening businesses and public amenities in the county.” The county developed the COVID-19 Dashboard to track numerous metrics and updates the information daily by 2 p.m.

The metrics tracked by the county include the number of cases, deaths, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and ICU hospitalizations. Also, the county tracks the utilization rate of acute care beds, intensive care beds, and ventilators. On Wednesday, the county began reporting on the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests and the capacity to test five percent of residents monthly.

Each metric shows improvement in the number of days out of the last 14 days based on a rolling three-day average.

Montgomery County COVID-19 Dashboard last updated May 27 (click on photo to enlarge):

As of Wednesday, the Maryland Department of Health reports 10,467 confirmed cases and 535 deaths due to COVID-19.

Moderate progress has been made in six of the metrics, including declining new cases, new deaths, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, intensive care hospitalizations, and positive tests.

The target for two metrics — 14 days of ICU bed utilization less than 80% and 14 days of ventilator use less than 70% — has been met.

The data posted Wednesday were:

• Number of new confirmed positive cases each day: 182 (three-day average); nine declining days out of the last 14
• Number of COVID-19 new deaths each day: 4 (three-day average); eight declining days
• COVID-19 related hospitalizations: 341 (three-day average); 10 declining days
• Number of COVID-19 related emergency room patients: 15 (three-day average); 5 declining days
• COVID-19 related intensive care unit hospitalizations: 120 (three-day average); 7 declining days
• Acute care bed utilization rate: 73% (three-day average); the county benchmark of less than 70% has been met 1 of the last 14 days
• Intensive care bed utilization rate: 64% (three-day average); the county benchmark of less than 80% has been met for 14 straight days
• Percentage of ventilators in use: 54% (three-day average); the county benchmark of less than 70% has been met for 14 straights days
• Percentage of positive tests: 16% (three-day average); nine declining days
• Number of tests administered: 1,099 (three-day average); the county has set a goal to have the capacity to test 5% of residents on a monthly basis

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