LOCAL COVID-19 DATA
This page includes COVID-19 data for Caroline County, Maryland. Data are updated weekly (each Friday). Below the infographic, you will find a list of definitions and sources.
DATA DEFINITIONS & SOURCES
POSITIVITY RATE
Positivity Rate is the total daily number of virus tests conducted in the county and of those tests, how many were positive each day. Since we report weekly, we share the average percentage of tests that were positive over the last 7 days.
Data Source: Maryland Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard
CASE RATE
Case Rate is the number of cases per 100,000 residents. Since we report data weekly, we share the 7-day moving average Case Rate.
Using the population size in the calculation helps us more easily compare larger and smaller counties. A larger county would be expected to have more total cases because of the larger population, but expressing the rate per 100,000 residents enables a more equal analysis.
Data Source: Maryland Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard
LEVEL OF COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION IN CAROLINE COUNTY
A county’s Level of Community Transmission is based on two metrics: the Case Rate and the Positivity Rate, both measured over the last seven days. The basic idea is that this shows how much virus is spreading around us and is an important determinant of how much risk you’re in.
The CDC recommends that all people, including those who are vaccinated, wear masks indoors if a county has “Substantial” or “High” rates of community transmission.
There are four levels in the CDC measure: Low, Moderate, Substantial, and High.
Data Source: Centers for Disease Control
PERCENTAGE OF CASES NOT FULLY VACCINATED
This is the percentage of people who have tested positive over the past 7 days who are not fully vaccinated. Not fully vaccinated also includes those who are partially vaccinated at the time of a positive result.
Data Source: Maryland Department of Health Eligible Population Report (provided daily to County Health Officers)
Because this data briefing may include data on small sample sizes, it is not made publicly available for privacy reasons. The data contained in the report comes directly from the Maryland Department of Health, using the statewide combined reporting system, known as the Chesapeake Regional Information System for Our Patients (CRISP) Health Information Exchange.
VACCINATION RATES
Our data shows the percentage of people in the age category who are fully vaccinated. This means they have completed 2 shots of Moderna or Pfizer or 1 shot of Johnson & Johnson.
The “All Eligible” group is all ages that can receive a vaccine, which is currently ages 12 and up. We also report on children ages 12-17 separately because this is a special interest group and the most recent age group to become eligible to receive a vaccine.
Data Source: Maryland Department of Health Eligible Population Report (provided daily to County Health Officers)
Because this data briefing may include data on small sample sizes, it is not made publicly available for privacy reasons. The data contained in the report comes directly from the Maryland Department of Health, using the statewide combined reporting system, known as the Chesapeake Regional Information System for Our Patients (CRISP) Health Information Exchange.
ACTIVE OUTBREAKS
COVID-19 outbreaks are defined in two ways:
-
During contact tracing, two or more contacts of an infected person are identified as having active COVID-19. This means that when we reach out to the close contacts of someone with COVID-19, two more of those people end up testing positive for the disease.
-
Two or more patients with COVID-19 are discovered to be linked through contact tracing, that link was discovered outside of a case investigation. For example, two patients who received a diagnosis of COVID-19 are found to work in the same office, and only one or perhaps neither of the them was listed as a close contact of the other.
We report on Outbreaks in Caroline County and Statewide, using data from the daily briefing the Caroline Health Department receives from the State of Maryland Health Department.
Data Source: Maryland Department of Health Daily COVID-19 Report (provided to County Health Officers)
Because this data briefing may include data on small sample sizes, it is not made publicly available for privacy reasons. The data contained in the report comes directly from the Maryland Department of Health, using the statewide combined reporting system, known as the Chesapeake Regional Information System for Our Patients (CRISP) Health Information Exchange.
INCREASE IN HOSPITALIZATIONS
This is the increase (or decrease) from the previous week in the number of Caroline County residents who are currently hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19.
Data Source: Maryland Department of Health Daily COVID-19 Report (provided to County Health Officers)
Because this data briefing may include data on small sample sizes, it is not made publicly available for privacy reasons. The data contained in the report comes directly from the Maryland Department of Health, using the statewide combined reporting system, known as the Chesapeake Regional Information System for Our Patients (CRISP) Health Information Exchange.
CUMULATIVE DEATHS
This is the total number of Caroline County residents who have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. COVID-19 deaths are counted when the disease is listed on the death certificate. When someone dies in a health care facility, the task of determining the cause usually goes to a physician who oversaw the person’s care or the person’s primary care doctor. Coroners and medical examiners make the determination in various other instances, including deaths that occur at home.
Part I and II of a death certificate ask what caused a death and what other factors contributed to it. If COVID-19 appears among the causes and contributors, CDC guidance counts that as a COVID-19-related death.
Part I asks for the “immediate cause” of death, followed by any “conditions that led to the immediate cause,” the CDC explains in guidelines for certifying COVID-19 fatalities. For example: In some COVID-19 cases, the immediate cause is an affliction that arose from the disease, such as pneumonia, while COVID-19 gets listed under that as an underlying condition that led to death. In other words, COVID-19 caused the pneumonia.
Part II asks for conditions that did not set off medical events that led to death but contributed in some other way. Here, COVID-19 appears as sort of an accomplice to a fatality that was probably going to occur from something else (such as a preexisting, terminal disease), but was accelerated by the person having contracted COVID-19.
Data Source: Maryland Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard
CONFIRMED VARIANTS OF CONCERN IN THE COUNTY
Viruses constantly change through mutation. As expected, multiple variants of COVID-19 have been documented in the United States and globally throughout this pandemic.
We report on Variants of Concern identified in Caroline County. These are variants for which there is evidence of an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease (e.g., increased hospitalizations or deaths), significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures.
Data Source: Maryland Department of Health COVIDlink Internal Data Portal (information pulls from data in CRISP – See “Vaccination Rates” for more info about CRISP)
Because this data source is specific to individual test results, just like other data originating from CRISP, access is highly controlled for privacy reasons and there is no public access to this data source.