Covid-19 Testing on the Eastern Shore, as of June 8, 2020
Jane Jewell • June 9, 2020
Testing for covid-19 has been slow in coming, all across America. For a long time, it was difficult — if not impossible — to get a test unless the patient was sick enough to require hospitalization. And even then, the results that confirmed covid-19 often came after the patient had recovered enough to be sent home or, sadly, had died.
That is finally beginning to change in Maryland. Now testing for covid-19 is open to everyone. You do not have to have symptoms or a doctor’s permission. This makes sense as it is now well known that many people have the virus with only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Recent research reported in Time Magazine found that at least 30 percent and more likely 40-45 percent of covid-19 cases were transmitted by people who were unaware they had the coronavirus.
There is also growing evidence that those with mild or no symptoms may not be getting off so easy after all. Chest x-rays of some positive-testing but asymptomatic people have shown lung damage similar to those who were hospitalized with more severe cases. And we have all heard about the serious problems that have shown up weeks later in some children who had light or no symptoms. There is still a lot to be learned about covid-19 and its long-term effects on the body.
So what does it mean if a person tests positive for covid-19? The test is a snapshot of the day the test was taken. If you have symptoms, then it is an easy diagnosis. Yes, you have covid-19. Call your doctor. Stay home.
But what about an asymptomatic person? The positive test may mean that you are coming down with the virus and will develop symptoms within the next week or so. Or it might mean that you had the virus recently without any symptoms and that you are — or soon will be — over the illness. If you remain asymptomatic, follow-up tests are advisable to figure out what’s going on. In the meantime, you should contact your doctor and quarantine at home while strictly following all the guidelines for protecting yourself and others. Family members and anyone you have had recent contact with should also follow the guidelines as well as get tested themselves.
Tests are being offered by county health departments and by some CVS pharmacies and a few other stores, including some Walmarts.
Appointments are still required. Call your county health department or check out the health department’s website to find when and where testing is available in your county. Requirements are similar. Most all are free.
In Kent County, for example, covid-19 tests are available Monday and Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. until noon starting Monday, June 8. It’s drive through. No cost. You must wear a mask at the testing site and you will need an appointment. The health department asks for your name, birthdate, address, and a phone number to call with the results in about four days. According to the health department, someone will call with the result, even on a weekend, especially if the test comes back positive.
As this article goes to press, cases of covid-19 on the Eastern Shore continue to rise — but not as fast as in previous weeks. Wicomico County still has the highest load with 984 cases. Cecil County is second with 408 confirmed cases. When adjusted for population, Wicomico is still the highest with 956 per 100,000 residents. However, Cecil County slips to sixth place with a rate of 394 per 100,000. Kent County’s rate of 954 is almost as high as Wicomico’s. And the death rate of 97 per 100,000 in Kent County is over three times higher than Wicomico’s death rate of 31. This undoubtedly reflects the fact that the hotspots in Wicomico tend to be in workplaces such as poultry processing plants with people of all ages, while Kent County’s hotspots are mostly in nursing homes with more vulnerable, older people.
The next milestone for covid-19 testing will be the development of accurate, reliable antibody tests. These will indicate whether a person had the virus sometime in the past and now has antibodies that should provide some protection in the future. Current antibody tests have too many false positives and false negatives.
Sources:
Time Magazine, June 5, 2020; “Nearly Half of Coronavirus Spread May Be Traced to People Without Any Symptoms”
Statistics for the number of cases and deaths in the first chart are from the official Maryland State Coronavirus website at https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/. The website is updated daily at 10:00 a.m. with information for the state as a whole with a breakdown of data for each individual county. There are also data by age, gender, race, and ethnicity, though not all of those categories are available for the county level.
The per capita rates per 100,000 population are from the New York Times interactive Coronavirus Map and Case Count at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/maryland-coronavirus-cases.html. This site is updated several times a day for all 50 states with breakdowns by county.
Other useful sites and articles include:
“A comprehensive timeline of the new coronavirus pandemic,” Business Insider
Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 Dashboard https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Jane Jewell
is a writer, editor, photographer, and teacher. She has worked in news, publishing, and as the director of a national writer's group. She lives in Chestertown with her husband Peter Heck, a ginger cat named Riley, and a lot of books.
Time Magazine, June 5, 2020; “Nearly Half of Coronavirus Spread May Be Traced to People Without Any Symptoms”
Statistics for the number of cases and deaths in the first chart are from the official Maryland State Coronavirus website at https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/. The website is updated daily at 10:00 a.m. with information for the state as a whole with a breakdown of data for each individual county. There are also data by age, gender, race, and ethnicity, though not all of those categories are available for the county level.
The per capita rates per 100,000 population are from the New York Times interactive Coronavirus Map and Case Count at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/maryland-coronavirus-cases.html. This site is updated several times a day for all 50 states with breakdowns by county.
Other useful sites and articles include:
“A comprehensive timeline of the new coronavirus pandemic,” Business Insider
Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 Dashboard https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
How to Properly Wash Your Hands, CNAclassesnearme.com
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
