Maryland reached a grim milestone Thursday in the coronavirus pandemic as the state reported its 6,000th related death.
The state health department logged 44 deaths to bring the toll since the pandemic’s outset to 6,004.
Maryland is also nearing 300,000 confirmed cases, with the 2,970 reported Thursday putting the total at 295,874.
Prince George’s County, which has consistently led the state in confirmed cases, recorded 485 Thursday, the most of any jurisdiction.
The health department reported 1,834 hospitalizations Thursday, down 28 from Wednesday’s record-setting total but more than three times as many as just two months prior on Nov. 6, when 609 people were hospitalized.
But state and hospital officials say hospitals have not been overrun and still have room to treat new patients, The Baltimore Sun reported.
The state is proactively attempting to speed up its vaccination efforts, with Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announcing earlier in the week that the Maryland National Guard has been deployed to assist in distribution.
As of Thursday, 98,536 residents had received their first shot of the two-dose vaccine, nearly 12,000 more than Wednesday, while 1,474 had received the second dose, more than doubling the amount from the day before.