Around Maryland

The Maryland State Health Department has debuted a new online COVID-19 dashboard. The new dashboard is formatted differently from the original, but it shows some of the same data. Numbers reported include hospitalizations and case totals, along with new features like a color-coded map showing the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's community transmission levels for each county in the state.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and a Maryland-based nonprofit says although the COVID-19 pandemic is over, it left behind a trail of mental health issues for local families. According to statistics from Columbia-based organization Maryland Coalition of Families (MCF), emergency room visits increased 39% for youth age 12-17 from 2019 to 2021.

In early March, Verónica del Cid Gaitán noticed a rash on her arms and suspected she’d had an allergic reaction. She’d been avoiding medical care — she didn’t have health insurance and couldn’t afford a large bill — but management at the restaurant where she worked insisted she get the rash checked out before returning.

Ridership of the Towson Loop’s free-to-ride circulator buses is still well short of the quarter million annual passengers projected by a 2020 feasibility study. But growing usage of the bus system has heartened Baltimore County officials to explore expanding the service to other parts of the county. Towson Loop buses have logged more than 80,000 riders since the program launched a year and a half ago, said Baltimore County officials.

Summer is ahead, and for many, so are long road trips. Last summer, 97% of vacations were taken by car, according to AAA. These long road trips take a toll on vehicles — which end up in the mechanic’s shop sooner or later. In Montgomery County, officials are reminding drivers to look out for scams at car repair shops and to remember that their rights as consumers are protected under Maryland law.

Due to the implementation of a new statewide system, the Caroline County Health Department will not be issuing birth or death certificates from May 1 to May 14. CCHD expects to resume issuance of certificates on May 15. The new process, including advanced appointment requirements, will be announced when full details are available.

Leaders in Prince George’s County aren’t arguing that the county welcomes, and needs, restaurants offering healthy options. But there is heated debated over promoting, and even offering favorable loans and incentives to restaurants that do. Council Vice Chair Wala Blegay is pushing a bill that would have the county not just promote healthy restaurants, but also make interest-free loans available to them, along with other incentives.

The Maryland Department of Health plans to shut down the online coronavirus data dashboard it has used since the coronavirus pandemic struck in March 2020 to publicly track hospitalizations, deaths, cases and other virus metrics. Starting Friday, the health department will move the data on the virus and information on vaccines, testing, treatment and other resources to a new, long-term home, the agency said Thursday. The websites coronavirus.maryland.gov and covidLINK.maryland.gov will no longer be accessible after this week