Maryland Resumes Reporting COVID-19 Deaths After Cyber Attack

January 3, 2022

Maryland officials resumed reporting coronavirus deaths Tuesday after a more than three week interruption amid an apparent cyberattack, adding more than 400 deaths to the state’s tally.

At least 415 Marylanders died from COVID-19 between Dec. 4 and Tuesday bringing the state’s total to 11,437, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s COVID-19 data dashboard.

Maryland also reported 6,574 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, while the number of hospitalized people grew by 112 to 1,826, nearly three times the number a month earlier. The seven-day testing positivity rate grew more than 1% from a day earlier to 17.6%.

Health department servers were taken offline to protect the network amid an apparent cyberattack on Dec. 4 and they have been brought back up methodically, officials have said. Last week, the state began posting some data, including the number of new cases and positivity rate data.

Officials have declined to describe the nature of the attack, but they have said there’s no evidence any data was compromised. The department is working with state and federal law enforcement as part of the ongoing criminal investigation.

Topics Cyber Maryland COVID-19

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