High Rates of New Covid-19 Cases in Several Counties On the Eastern Shore
Jane Jewell • October 27, 2020
For much of the past two months, September and October 2020, some of the highest rates of new cases of covid-19 in Maryland have been on the Eastern Shore. For the week ending Saturday, Oct. 24, the three highest rates were all in Eastern Shore counties. Of Maryland’s 24 counties, Dorchester led the state with a rate of 257 new covid-19 cases per 100,000 population.
That was more than triple the state’s overall rate of 73 per 100,000 population.
The second highest rate for the week was 125 in Somerset County. Wicomico was third with a rate of 110. The fourth and fifth highest rates were not on the Eastern Shore but were in the rural western counties of Allegany (104) and Garrett (93).
Thus Maryland appears to be following a nation-wide pattern of fast-rising rates of covid-19 in smaller towns and rural areas. Covid-19 hit the big cities and more densely populated towns and suburban areas first and hit them hard. But now the pandemic is moving into more rural areas across the country.
However, not all the high rates were in rural areas, nor did all the rural areas have high rates. For example, Baltimore City at 91 had the 6th highest rate of new cases last week. Cecil County, which is mainly a combination of rural and suburban/small town areas in the northern part of the Eastern Shore, was 22nd of 24 counties with a low new-case rate of 47, considerably below the state average of 73. That’s quite a change from just a few weeks ago when Cecil County was sixth highest in the state with a rate of 68.
These rates and ranks can change rapidly as hotspots develop and restrictions are lifted or reimposed. The virus can spread widely in just a few days anywhere it gets a foothold. So more significant than an area’s one-week rate or rank is whether that rate is trending up or down. For example, this past week, Kent at 62 and Worcester at 65 had rates lower than the state’s average. Kent ranked 16th in the state, a seemingly big improvement from its rank of ninth highest number of new cases on Sept. 26. But a closer look at the data makes it apparent that Kent only seems to have improved. Kent dropped from ninth to 16th place, not because there were fewer cases of covid-19 in Kent, but because other counties had increased more! Kent’s rate per 100,000 population was 36 a month ago. But by Oct. 24, Kent County’s rate had almost doubled to 62.
In late September, the state-wide rate of new cases was 54 in Maryland. Now in late October, it has risen to 73. The increased rates in Maryland and across the country are due to several factors. One is the relaxing of and resistance to masks and social-distancing. Another significant factor is one that we can’t do much about — the weather. It seems that all the variations of the coronavirus — from the common cold to covid-19 — thrive in colder, drier weather. That’s a major reason why we have more colds and flus in the winter than in the summer.
A third important factor contributing to the current nation-wide upward trend in covid-19 is the re-opening of schools and businesses. Most of Maryland’s public school systems — 19 out of 24 — had opened this fall. Most had some combination of online and in-person classes. Colleges also started, most with virtual learning and few, if any, students on campus. However, several have since closed or gone more online since opening due to covid-19 outbreaks either among the students or in the community. In one case, Dorchester public schools started on Sept. 8 with about 20 percent of students attending in person. But by last week, the county had become a hotspot with its positivity rate jumping from 2.9 percent to 6.1 percent in just eight days. The rate of new cases went from 94 per 100,000 population in September to 257 on Oct. 24. Nine cases affected people related to the county schools — four teenage students and five employees. In another case in Caroline County, Greensboro Elementary closed for two weeks on Oct. 19 after eight staff members tested positive in just one week.
Where this all goes, we will have to see. Until then, mask up and keep your distance — and be safe.
Source: New York Times Covid-19 Data Base. Data is gathered and published by the Maryland Dept. of Health on their website with updates daily at 10:00 am.
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.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
More than 30,000 of our neighbors in Maryland’s first congressional district will lose their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid because of provisions in the GOP’s heartless tax cut and spending bill passed last week.
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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.
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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.
