Montgomery County, Maryland, is seeing the number of COVID-19 cases increase, but the level of community spread remains low.
According to the county’s COVID-19 surveillance dashboard, there have been 193 cases per 100,000 in the past seven days.
“There’s a clear favoring in this virus to become increasingly transmissible,” said Earl Stoddard, Montgomery County’s assistant chief administrative officer. As a result, the frequency of cases will likely increase “even if the frequency of hospitalizations does not,” Stoddard said.
Hospitalization rates continue to dip, with three hospitalizations per 100,000 reported on the county’s dashboard.
Health and Human Services Public Health Emergency Preparedness Manager Sean O’Donnell said the latest information from nursing homes shows that they have access to antivirals and monoclonal antibody treatments.
“And that may be part of why we’re seeing a low number of transfers over to hospitals,” he said.
O’Donnell advised anyone who may be visiting family in a nursing home or assisted living facility to get tested before they go.
“Because this is spreading in many cases asymptomatically, and we want to make sure we don’t introduce any new infections out there,” O’Donnell said.