Howard County has continued to align with Gov. Larry Hogan’s reopening plan. Hogan announced the following reopenings beginning Friday, June 19, at 5 p.m.:

  • Gyms, indoor fitness centers, dance studios, martial arts at 50 percent with distancing and following strict public health requirements
  • Casinos, arcades and malls

This comes after previous reopenings effective Friday, June 12, at 5 p.m.:

  • Indoor dining at 50 percent capacity, with distancing and following strict public health requirements
  • Outdoor amusements and attractions, miniature golf and go-karts
  • Outdoor pools capacity increasing to 50 percent

“Howard County continues to see our key metrics trend in the right direction, we now have a positivity rate of 6.4 percent,” said County Executive Calvin Ball. “We will keep making reopening decisions based on our data and we are hopeful that this progress will be sustained throughout the coming months so that our community can recover. Our goal has always been to open as safely and as quickly as possible.”

Howard County key metrics are flat or have decreased during the past seven days. The seven-day rolling average for ventilator utilization has decreased from 23 percent a week ago to 21 percent; ICU utilization rate has remained flat at 64 percent; and acute care utilization has decreased from 92 percent to 90 percent.

The seven-day rolling average positivity rate peaked on April 29 at 28.21 percent. Recently, it dropped to 6.4 percent, below the state average of 7.24 percent. Howard County has increased the averaged tests administered per day from 116 in April to 613 in June. Overall, the county has increased contact tracers from two to 43.