Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and Democratic lawmakers are calling for an audit of the Maryland Environmental Service, a quasi-state agency.

Tyrone Turner / DCIst/WAMU

The number COVID-19 patients in Maryland intensive care units has dropped to its lowest count since March.

The state reported 98 occupied ICU beds on Saturday, the first time that metric has dropped below 100 since March 29.

https://twitter.com/riccimike/status/1297171656583122945

Maryland has reported a decrease in total hospitalizations over the past three weeks, after those numbers spiked slightly in late July into early August. The state has reported fewer than 500 hospitalized patients since August 12.

Maryland also reached a milestone last week when the rolling seven-day positivity average dropped to its lowest point during the pandemic at 3.08% on Thursday. That measures the percentage of people who’ve tested positive among results that have been processed. And each jurisdiction recorded an average positivity rate below 5% for the first time.

For weeks, Prince George’s County stubbornly remained the only county hovering above 5%. The county reported an average positivity rate of 4.93% on Thursday, and that metric continued to trend downward in the following days. The county recorded an average positivity rate of 4.57% on Saturday, while Somerset County jumped back up to 5.38%.

The state reported 624 new cases on Saturday, bringing Maryland’s total caseload to 103,523. Prince’s George’s County and Montgomery County (the state’s most populous jurisdictions) continue to hold the highest caseloads, with 25,343 and 19,385 cases, respectively.

Maryland has now tested 1,751,515 people for COVID-19. Montgomery County, which recently shut down its publicly run testing centers for nearly a week after a federal inspection revealed lab deficiencies, has administered the most tests, at 210,309.

Despite the decreasing hospitalization and positivity rate metrics, some local leaders are pushing for increased contact tracing efforts ahead of school reopenings. While many Maryland public school systems in the D.C. area are starting the school year virtually, private schools are permitted to operate in-person classes. This week, two staff members at a Montgomery private school tested positive for the coronavirus.

Coronavirus metrics across the D.C. region have decreased in the past few weeks. Although D.C., Maryland, and Virginia reported the highest combined total of new daily cases in a week on Friday, the seven-day average of new cases hit a five-week low of 1,485 on that same day. On Saturday, the region recorded a combined daily case total of 1,901, up from Friday’s 1,708.

D.C.’s hospital bed capacity has also stayed below its desired benchmark of 80% since Aug. 14, and hospitalization numbers have declined in Virginia this month.