Today, DC reported 245 new coronavirus cases, matching May’s daily case high. In recent days, the number of new daily cases has mostly oscillated between 80 and 150 per day, with a recent spike of 206 new cases last Tuesday.
Though daily case numbers can be artificially inflated by a large number of test results coming back in one day, today’s high number is concerning when taken in context with the accompanying data the city is using to track the spread of the virus. Since last Thursday, the city’s daily case rate per 100,000 has been in Phase 1 territory, and today, the transmission rate passed that threshold also.
Still, DC is faring better than other cities in controlling the spread of the virus. The District’s 4.6 percent positivity rate is far lower than the 17 percent seen in hard-hit regions of the Midwest, and the percentage of hospitalized patients presenting with Covid is solidly within Phase 2 benchmarks.
As of yet, the city has not announced any plans to implement additional restrictions, and city officials have noted that many of the recent rollbacks in neighboring counties are only bringing them closer to the preventative measures DC has enforced throughout the summer.
Correction: A previous version of this article listed the May case high as 237 cases. Washingtonian regrets the error.
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
