For agencies that do not report data every day, variation in the schedule on which cases or deaths are reported, such as around holidays, can also cause an irregular pattern in averages. The Times is excluding these anomalies from seven-day averages when possible. Governments often revise data or report a single-day large increase in cases or deaths from unspecified days without historical revisions, which can cause an irregular pattern in the daily reported figures. Probable cases and deaths count individuals who meet criteria for other types of testing, symptoms and exposure, as developed by national and local governments. The tallies on this page include probable and confirmed cases and deaths.Ĭonfirmed cases and deaths, which are widely considered to be an undercount of the true toll, are counts of individuals whose coronavirus infections were confirmed by a molecular laboratory test. Maryland began reporting probable deaths. Maryland added 538 deaths from the past year after reconciling records. Maryland did not announce new cases and deaths for the Thanksgiving holiday. The state announced it was responding to a cyberattack that affected data systems. Maryland was unable to report new cases data for more than two weeks. Maryland was unable to report new county-level cases and deaths because of a technical issue. 20 after resolving technical issues that prevented the state from reporting updates for more than two weeks. Maryland did not announce new cases and deaths for the Christmas holiday. Maryland added many cases and deaths in Charles County after resolving a technical issue. Maryland did not announce new cases and deaths for the New Year's holiday. Maryland added about 24,800 cases from recent months representing people who were infected more than once. The Times began including death certificate data reconciled by the C.D.C., resulting in a one-day increase in total deaths. More about reporting anomalies or changes If a rise in cases is the result of increased transmission, the line could appear to be increasing over that same time period.The Times has identified reporting anomalies or methodology changes in the data. If a rise in cases is the result of increased testing, the percent positive line could look flat or like it is decreasing over the time period when cases increased. Not finding these infections may mean that the virus is transmitting without intervention, which can lead to future case growth. If we see the percentage of positive tests begin to rise, it indicates insufficient testing to find infections that may be occurring. Percent positivity can also help us determine if an increase in cases is simply the result of expanded testing or if it signals increased transmission of the virus. A positivity rate over 5% indicates a state may only be testing the sickest patients who seek out medical care, and are not casting a wide enough net to identify milder cases and track outbreaks. Ideally, a state should be meeting or exceeding the recommended positivity rate, which the WHO has set at 5%. Positivity rates can tell us whether a state’s testing capacity is sufficient. Our approach is applied to all our testing data to correct for the release of uneven data. Otherwise, days when a large number of negative tests are released at once-resulting in very low positivity-will have the same weight as days when data was steadily released, and the overall result is going to be lower. Since we want to give a 7-day average, it is fairer to average the raw data and then calculate the ratios. We use our approach because testing capacity issues and uneven reporting cadences create many misleading peaks and valleys in the data. Some states may be calculating the positivity percentage for each day, and then doing the rolling 7-day average. Click here to learn more about why the positivity rates shown on our site may differ from state calculationsħ-Day Averages: The CRC calculates the rolling 7-day average separately for each daily numerator and denominator data point, and then for each day calculates the percentage over the rolling averages.

Maryland covid positivity rate