Per the State of Maryland:
ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan today announced that the State of Maryland’s COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped below 3% for the first time since early November, as the state’s health metrics continue to decline.
The Maryland Lottery has announced that the winner of today’s $50,000 VaxCash 2.0 drawing is from Montgomery County.
The promotion is to incentivize Marylanders to get COVID-19 booster shots.
Beginning today, masks are no longer required to be worn inside of gyms, restaurants, stores, and other areas. Below is a list of places that, for the time being, will still require masks.
Public Schools: The Maryland State Board of Education has a statewide indoor mask requirement for public schools and is meeting today (February 22nd) to discuss future plans for the mask requirement.
Per Montgomery County:
For Immediate Release: Monday, February 21, 2022
Last week the Montgomery County Council, acting as the Board of Health, announced it will not be introducing a new Board of Health regulation to extend the indoor mask requirement. This allows the current Board of Health regulation to terminate tonight (Monday, February 21st) at 11:59pm.
What does this mean?
The Maryland Department of Health has posted an update regarding the “network security incident” that caused its website to be offline several weeks last December, confirming that the incident was the result of a ransomware attack.
During that time the MDH was not able to update its COVID-19 portal with daily case rates, testing, and deaths.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington (ADW) sent a letter to Catholic school parents earlier today, stating that face coverings will no longer be required indoors in our Maryland school facilities for students, staff, or visitors beginning on Monday, February 21st.
The letter states that depending on the needs of each school’s leaders to prepare, schools will transition between February 21 and February 28. “We appreciate and will fully support whatever decisions that parents make for their own children regarding whether to wear a face covering in school or not.”
Starting March 1st, DC’s indoor mask requirement will be lifted in indoor areas including, restaurants/bars, sports venues, gyms, and other areas listed in the image below.
On February 15, 2022, DC stopped requiring venues to verify that patrons are vaccinated. The indoor vaccine requirement went into effect in DC on January 15th, after being announced by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser in December. Businesses can still choose to keep the vaccination requirements in place.
Per the State of Maryland:
ANNAPOLIS, MD—With the state’s health metrics continuing to substantially decline, Governor Larry Hogan today announced that the requirement for masks and face coverings to be worn in state buildings will end next week.
GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 10, 2022/PRNewswire/ — Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a biotechnology company dedicated to developing and commercializing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today announced that NVX-CoV2373, its recombinant nanoparticle protein-based COVID-19 vaccine, achieved its primary effectiveness endpoint in the pediatric expansion of its PREVENT-19 pivotal Phase 3 trial and demonstrated 80% efficacy overall at a time when the Delta variant was the predominant circulating strain in the U.S. The study enrolled 2,247 adolescents aged 12 through 17-years across 73 sites in the U.S. to evaluate safety, effectiveness (immunogenicity), and efficacy, with an emphasis on ensuring well balanced racial and ethnic representation among participants.
“We are encouraged by the results in this adolescent population given the ongoing need for alternative vaccine options for COVID-19,” said Filip Dubovsky, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Novavax. “We believe the Novavax vaccine offers a differentiated technology and option for this younger population given its established protein-based technology already used in other vaccines, and the positive responses demonstrated against variants.”
Per Montgomery County:
ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan today announced that the state’s COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped below 5%—another critical milestone as Maryland’s health metrics continue to substantially decline.