On March 5, 2020, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced the state had diagnosed three coronavirus cases — the first confirmed patients in the D.C. area.
The patients, a woman in her 50s and a married couple in their 70s, live in Montgomery County and fell ill after taking a cruise in Egypt on the Nile River, NBC Washington reported.
Few average people expected the pandemic to drag on for a year. No one used the words “pandemic pod;” “essential business” wasn’t a widely understood phrase and “social distancing” was just entering the vocabulary.
It was before someone could simply say, “COVID,” to explain a devastating range of struggles and losses, including more than 7,000 lives lost to the virus.
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Friday marks a full year since the pandemic was known to have reached our region.
Friday, March 5, 2021, is recognized as COVID-19 Day of Remembrance to honor the Marylanders who have lost their lives due to the virus, Hogan announced.
The Maryland flag will be lowered to half-staff to mark the occasion and a twilight ceremony will be held at the State House Friday evening. Members of the public are encouraged to join the ceremony virtually via livestream.
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Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Maryland’s Pandemic By the Numbers
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 385,678 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in Maryland and more than 3 million people have tested negative.
More than 35,000 residents have been hospitalized and a total of 7,748 lives have been lost to the virus in the state.
Infections have ebbed and flowed with national trends. The winter holiday season resulted in an all-time high in daily hospitalizations (1,957) on Jan 11. The state’s seven-day average peaked a day later with 3,228 daily cases.
Today, cases and hospitalizations have come down from their peaks thanks to COVID-19 restrictions and vaccinations.
Now, 8.8% of Marylanders have been fully vaccinated and 961,636 received at least one dose.
Cases have been highest in Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, where 63,796 and 73,994 infections of COVID-19 have been diagnosed, respectively. Allegany County, however, has the highest concentration of cases in the state – 9,040 cases have been diagnosed per 100,000 people.
