D.C. reported a spike in COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, marking the city’s highest number of new infections in almost a month.
The District saw 73 new infections, bringing the total to 10,642 since the start of the pandemic. That caseload is the largest single-day increase since June 9, when the city reported 85 new cases.
D.C. also reported three new deaths on Wednesday.
Virginia and Maryland also reported jumps in cases today, but both were slightly lower than their new case loads one day prior. Virginia saw 635 new infections, bringing its total to 67,375 and Maryland reported 465 additional cases, with a total of 70,861 cases.
Virginia also reported 24 new deaths, while Maryland saw nine.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser offered some potential explanations for the spike during a press conference on Wednesday, one being the possibility that out-of-towners visiting the District had brought the virus with them.
“We can’t control everybody in the region and we certainly can’t control everybody nationally, but we are a country with porous borders, so anybody from Texas or Florida can be in D.C. in the next hour, and we won’t be able to control that,” she said. The two states have both seen a surge in cases in recent weeks.
Bowser noted other potential factors as well, like an increase in testing leading to identification of more cases, the fact that the city cannot control when employees in the private sector and federal government return to work, and mass demonstrations. “So, all of those things have a big impact,” she said.
Today’s spike comes after the region as a whole recorded its second-highest combined number of COVID-19 cases in nearly a month on Tuesday. On Monday, D.C. Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt said no observable coronavirus spike could be attributed to the protests up to that point.
Virginia has continued easing restrictions in recent weeks and moved to Phase Three of its reopening plans, but both Maryland and the District have opted to remain in Phase Two.
Local officials and public health experts in the D.C. and Montgomery County have expressed their concerns about a piecemeal reopening in the region.
Boris Lushniak, the dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Health, told the Washington Post on Monday, “It’s not the best public health measure to break the region apart in this manner. . . . I would have preferred for this to be done in a more coordinated fashion.”
D.C. officials have declined to provide a timeline for moving into Phase Three, but the criteria includes being able to adequately track new cases and having sufficient hospital bed capacity, among other factors.
Northern Virginia officials have also warned residents not to relax too much. “I think there is a concern that as you move to Phase Three, that signals to folks that, you know, all bets are off, you can do whatever you want,” Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson told DCist/WAMU last month. “We’re trying to emphasize to folks that we need to continue to keep our guard up.”
