As the D.C. region continues to see an uptick in the spread of the coronavirus, today Virginia and Maryland both recorded their highest number of new cases in weeks.
Maryland recorded 930 new cases, its highest number since May 30, bringing its total number of cases to 81,766. Virginia, meanwhile, saw 1,127 new cases, the largest caseload since June 7, for a total of 82,364 known infections.
Maryland and Virginia also reported 13 new fatalities, respectively. The totals include all confirmed and probable cases and deaths linked to the coronavirus reported by local jurisdictions.
D.C. also saw a significant increase in cases today, reporting 78 new infections, bringing the District’s total to 11,649. That number is nearly double what D.C. reported on Thursday, though it’s lower than the 102 new cases the city saw on Wednesday, its highest case load since June 4.
The District did not record any new deaths related to COVID-19.
After declining in early June before largely plateauing, the region has seen an uptick in July, and over the past week alone D.C. has seen a 12% rise in cases, according to the Washington Post.
At a press conference today, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a mandatory self-quarantine for travelers coming from high-risk areas. Earlier in the week, Bowser expanded mask requirements in the city, mandating that people wear masks in public with exceptions for eating, drinking, and doing “vigorous outdoor exercise,” and some other scenarios.
Officials in Anne Arundel County, Maryland also announced the tightening of some restrictions on dining and social gatherings in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. The new rules will go into effect on Friday.
The jumps in new cases are the latest in a series of spikes in the region as infections surge across the country, though experts have said the local numbers aren’t necessarily as concerning as they might seem.
“The DMV region has, relative to many areas of the country, been doing really very well when we’re looking at cases, when we’re looking at our positivity rate, when we’re looking at hospitalizations and deaths,” Dr. Melissa Hawkins, the director of the public health scholars program at American University’s department of health studies, told DCist this week. (Disclosure: AU holds the license for DCist’s parent company, WAMU.)
Hawkins noted that other data, like positivity rates, can better indicate how an area is doing. Positivity rates have remained relatively low in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia compared to hotspots like Texas and Florida.
