The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Montgomery County is very low, said Sean O’Donnell, Public Health Emergency Preparedness Manager with County Health and Human Services, during a weekly council briefing Monday.
As of Sunday, only 15 COVID-19 patients are in county hospitals or at the alternate care site in Takoma Park. 10 patients are at the alternate care site: eight acute patients and two in the intensive care unit (ICU). Five other patients are spread out among county hospitals.
In the week prior as of March 20, there were 30 patients hospitalized. During a county media briefing last Wednesday, O’Donnell said it was “very heartening” that there were no COVID-19 ICU patients in the main county hospitals.
Toward the end of January this year, the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus in Montgomery County was 373.
There has been a mild uptick in cases over the last few days, O’Donnell said, but transmission rates are still much lower than they were at any point going back to the end of last summer before the Delta variant hit. He said there has been a steady increase in the proportion of BA.2 subvariant cases in the region. So far, the variant appears to have a modest impact on total case counts, but the county is preparing in case that changes. He said the prevailing belief from national and state partners is that BA.2 is similar enough to the previous Omicron variant that people who were infected with Omicron are less likely to have a breakthrough case.
