By Liz Holland

It’s been one year since a new coronavirus arrived in Maryland, shutting down schools and businesses and causing financial stress for many. But as the anniversary arrives, more than 1.5 million people in the state have now been vaccinated against the disease and some restrictions are being lifted.

Last Friday, Gov. Larry Hogan commemorated the one-year anniversary of the state’s first confirmed cases of Covid-19 with a day of remembrance in honor of the more than 7,700 Marylanders who have lost their lives to the virus.

“After confronting a threat unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes, each day now brings us closer to a return to normalcy, and we can finally see that light at the end of the tunnel,” Hogan said.

Because Maryland has made significant progress in both its vaccination and infection rates, the governor on Tuesday announced he is lifting some of the mandatory restrictions that have been in effect for nearly a year.

As of 5 p.m. Friday, restaurants and bars can operate at full capacity both indoors and outdoors, with seated and socially distanced service only, Hogan said. Crowding in bars is not allowed.

Hogan also lifted the previous capacity limits on retail stores, religious groups, fitness centers, casinos, personal services and indoor recreation facilities.

Larger facilities, such as stadiums, racetracks, wedding venues and outdoor entertainment spaces can operate at 50 percent capacity.

Hogan also lifted the quarantine requirements on people who have traveled out of state, but strongly encouraged travelers to follow up with testing when they return home.

The mask order remains in effect, he said.

“I want to make it clear the virus is still with us, and it remains important to continue to take precautions to stay safe,” Hogan said.

 Preparing for the worst

 As soon as Covid-19 arrived in the United States in January 2020, the staff at TidalHealth Peninsula Regional began preparing for what they feared could be an onslaught of critically ill patients in the months to come.

Hospital staff converted a large basement conference room into a 44-bed critical care area and they erected two large tents as a triage and screening area in the parking lot outside the Robert T. Adkins Emergency/Trauma Center. Patients were screened for flu and coronavirus symptoms, and then segregated to a designated location inside the ER or outside within the triage tent.

More beds were made available in the hospital’s Layfield Tower, which is equipped with a negative air flow system that works to prevent the spread of infection.

Sarah Arnett, the hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer, said staff also got busy securing masks and other protective gear, medications and Covid testing supplies, while surgical nurses were cross-trained for critical care and a lot of the staff was reassigned. The changes even affected employees in finance and billing. 

“It definitely was a team effort,” she said.

The first cases of coronavirus in Maryland were reported on March 5, 2020, in Montgomery County. Three people – a married couple in their 70s and an unrelated woman in her 50s – had all returned from a Nile River cruise in Egypt and later developed symptoms of the disease.

Two weeks later on March 19, 2020, health officials announced the arrival of Covid-19 in Wicomico County: a 30-year-old man who had traveled out of the country. While he apparently recovered, more cases followed and the county reported its first death from the virus just nine days later on March 28.

TidalHealth saw its first surge in Covid cases during the third and fourth weeks of last April when there were 87 patients admitted.

A second surge happened in January when there were 119 cases over a two-week period, Arnett said. At the time, Wicomico County Health Officer Lori Brewster attributed the increase in cases to family gatherings and out of state travel over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Since the first cases arrived last March, TidalHealth has admitted 1,578 Covid patients and treated another 1,207 in the ER, she said. As of last week, there have been 178 deaths at the hospital.

To date, Wicomico County has had 6,840 cases and 144 deaths.

But with the arrival of the first vaccines in December, there has been a steady decrease in cases, and as of last week, there were only 14 Covid patients in the hospital.

Fewer cases have resulted in the dismantling of the tents outside the ER.

“Barring any resurgence, they’re gone for good,” Arnett said.

The hospital also plans to eventually convert its basement Covid unit back into a conference room. The area was outfitted with lines supplying oxygen, air and suction, as well as medical dispensing machines and other equipment, and all of that will remain intact for possible future use.

Even when the pandemic finally comes to an end, Arnett said the virus probably will never go away completely.

“We know we’re going to have to live with Covid from here forward,” she said.

 Vaccines arrive

 Vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech arrived here in mid-December with the first shots going to health care workers.

The new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was approved recently by the Food and Drug Administration, was distributed to providers across Maryland last week.

Hogan recently announced that the first mass vaccination site on the Eastern Shore will open at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center in Salisbury next week. The state will partner with TidalHealth to operate it, he said.

It will join other sites now open at Six Flags America, M&T Bank Stadium and the Baltimore Convention Center which can administer thousands of shots per day. Another state-run mass vaccination site opened last week in Southern Maryland and one in Western Maryland is set to open by the end of March, Hogan said.

Hogan also announced a plan to vaccinate people in hard-to-reach and underserved communities, including on the Eastern Shore, using mobile vaccination clinics.

The Wicomico County Health Department has been holding regular vaccination clinics at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center since the week of Dec. 21.

Additionally, several pharmacies in the Salisbury area, including Walgreen’s, Walmart and Sam’s Club, are administering the vaccine.

To find providers and make an appointment, visit covidvax.maryland.gov.

Maryland is currently in Phase 1C which includes people ages 65 to 74, public health and safety workers not covered in Phase 1A, essential workers in lab services, food and agriculture production, manufacturing, the U.S. Postal Service, public transit and grocery stores.

Anyone in Phase 1B, which includes people 75 years and older, people in assisted living, group homes, high-risk incarcerated individuals and schoolteachers, are still eligible to sign up for vaccinations.

More than 50 percent of Marylanders ages 65 and older have now received Covid-19 vaccines, Hogan said.

 Latest numbers

 As of Tuesday, March 9, Wicomico County has had 6,840 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 144 deaths. Health officials also reported that 18,124 county residents have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 12,358 have gotten a second dose.

The patient count in Somerset is now 2,413 with 32 deaths. First doses of the vaccine have gone to 3,612 residents and 2,279 have gotten second doses.

Additional cases have also been confirmed in Worcester County, which now reports 3,290 people as having the virus and 91 deaths. So far 12,632 people have gotten their first shots and 7,967 had a second dose.

Dorchester County counts 2,379 cases, 44 deaths, 5,574 first doses of vaccine and 3,309 second shots. There are 2,060 reported cases in Caroline County with 21 deaths, 5,959 first vaccinations and 3,632 second doses.

Statewide in Maryland, 388,666 cases have been confirmed, with 7,806 confirmed deaths and 182 probable deaths. The current hospitalization totals of people with the virus stands at 792. The number of people in intensive care is 215.

As of Tuesday, the state has administered more than 1.5 million doses of vaccine, with 950,810 first doses and 744,625 second doses.

Across Maryland, more than 3 million people have tested negative for the virus.

Nationally, there are now more than 29 million cases with 525,904 deaths.