Wednesday afternoon, Montgomery County updated 10 public health metrics used to guide the county’s efforts to reopen businesses and relax restrictions due to the public health emergency. The county is tracking three categories of information including hospital capacity, COVID-19 surveillance, and COVID-19 testing capabilities. The county’s COVID-19 Dashboard is updated daily with the current numbers for each of the 10 metrics.
The county’s website on Tuesday showed all 10 metrics coded with the color green, indicating the criteria was met. County Executive Marc Elrich announced Monday evening that based on the public health data, the county would begin phase 2 of the reopening process.
County Executive Marc Elrich’s Executive Order also details the need to consider the following three additional factors:
- The capacity to test 5% of the county’s population each month.
- A contact tracing system in place to contact patients testing positive with COVID-19 within 24 hours.
- Infrastructure to identify and begin addressing COVID-19 related inequities in health outcomes.
The methodology for each of the ten criteria is based on a three-day rolling average and the number of days out of the last 14 days there was progress to the goal. For instance, the goal to keep the utilization of acute care beds under 70% is measured by the percentage of all acute care beds in use. The county is monitoring the days of adequate capacity of acute care beds. A day of adequate capacity occurs when the three-day rolling average meets or exceeds the goal. Find detailed information on each criterion on the county’s COVID-19 website.
Montgomery County COVID-19 Dashboard as of June 17 (click on photo to enlarge):
Montgomery County COVID-19 Dashboard as of June 16 (click on photo to enlarge):
The data posted Wednesday afternoon were:
- Number of new confirmed positive cases each day: 71 (three-day average); 12 declining days our of the last 14.
- Number of COVID-19 new deaths each day: four (three-day average); 13 declining days of the last 14.
- COVID-19 related hospitalizations: 196 (three-day average); 14 declining days.
- Number of COVID-19 related emergency room patients: 4 (three-day average); 14 declining days.
- COVID-19 related intensive-care unit hospitalizations: 73 (three-day average); 14 declining days.
- Acute care bed utilization rate: 68% (three-day average); the county benchmark of 70% or less has been met 10 of the last 14 days.
- Intensive Care Unit bed utilization rate: 60% (three-day average); the county benchmark of 80% or less has been met 14 out of the last 14 days.
- Percentage of ventilators in use: 43% (three-day average); the county benchmark of 70% or less has been met 14 out of the last 14 days.
- Test positivity rate: 6% (three-day average); 14 declining days.
The county also set goals for testing capacity, contact tracing, and prioritizing equity. More details on each of these goals are available on the county’s website, here.
