Wicomico County’s confirmed cases of coronavirus patients totaled 166 patients as of Monday night, state health officials reported.

Three Wicomico residents have now died from the virus, with 63 new cases added to the count since Friday.

Salisbury Mayor Jake Day announced late Tuesday that a city employee has tested positive. The patient is a member of the Salisbury Fire Department, who was battling a cough, but no other symptoms.

The firefighter will remain in home isolation as mandated by the Wicomico County Health Department.

City of Salisbury essential employees have their temperatures taken at the beginning of each shift. They are also now required to wear N95 masks at all times when on-duty.

“While these measures can help to minimize the spread of the virus, no method of protection is 100 percent effective at keeping you infection-free,” the mayor said in a statement.

“With the number of confirmed cases in Wicomico County quickly approaching 200, social distancing measures remain the best bet for minimizing the impact of the Coronavirus in our community,” he said.

In honor of our neighbors who have lost their battles with Coronavirus, the mayor has ordered all city of Salisbury flags to be flown at half-staff until further notice.

"While mitigation remains vitally important, we have already begun to see the disease exact its sad toll here in Salisbury," Day said.  

Additional Covid-19 cases have also been confirmed in Worcester County, which now reports 34 people as having the virus.

The patient count in Somerset is now 11, which makes for a total of 211 cases in the three Lower Shore counties.

Officials concede there are likely more cases in the communities, as many virus victims have not been tested.

Dorchester County counts 23 cases with one death.

Statewide in Maryland, 13,684 cases have been confirmed, with 516 deaths reported. The hospitalization totals of people with the virus stands at 3,014.

Across Maryland, 57,713 people have tested negative for the virus and 917 people have been released from isolation after testing positive.

Meanwhile on Monday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced the receipt of 500,000 Covid-19 test kits from South Korea. The delivery means the state now has more testing kits than the top four other states combined.

Hogan said his administration searched for weeks in the United States and abroad for more kits, which are in critically short supply.

On March 28, “Operation Enduring Friendship” was launched when the governor’s Korean-American wife, Yumi, spoke to the Korean ambassador to the United Nations.

“We made a personal plea, in Korean, for their assistance,” Hogan said.

In the following weeks, calls were made nearly daily, often late at night as a result of the 13-hour time difference, to arrange for the purchase and transportation of the kits.

The delivery itself was the first time a Korean Air jet landed at Baltimore-Washington Airport.

Other arrangements involved vetting the tests’ producers, LabGenomics, and obtaining clearance from many federal agencies for the shipment.