DC COVID-19 cases reach new high

Washington, D.C. has reported a record number of COVID-19 infections heading into the holiday weekend, according to DCist/WAMU.

The city’s daily rate of new virus cases, 186 out of 100,000 residents, is higher than any state in the country based on data from The New York Times.

Earlier this week, the city reported a weekly case rate of 1,192 virus cases out of 100,000 people compared to New York City’s rate of 1,059 cases per 100,000 people.

University of Maryland public health professor Neil J. Sehgal told DCist/WAMU that the region will likely see a surge of hospitalizations during the holiday season.

“Certainly for fully vaccinated and boosted people, hospitalization and death are not the likely outcome of a breakthrough infection,” Sehgal said. “But our vaccination rates in the District aren’t as high as we want them to be, so there are certainly a lot of vulnerable people.”

This comes as neighboring Maryland and Virginia are also experiencing a rise of virus infections as the highly transmissible omicron variant becomes the majority of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. 

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) recently reimposed the city’s indoor mask mandate and announced that businesses including restaurants, bars, gyms and music venues, must implement vaccination requirements for their patrons starting in January. 

More than a dozen D.C. public schools entered holiday break early due to rising COVID-19 cases, with the school system also delaying its return in January to give students and faculty the opportunity to test themselves for COVID-19, DCist/WAMU reported. 

Updated: 9:58 p.m.