NOTE: See comment below regarding the re-opening dates from Governor Hogan Spokesperson Mike Ricci.
Today at 3:00pm, Governor Larry Hogan briefed the State of Maryland with an update and the steps the State is taking to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus and to get the economy started.
Currently there are 28,163 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 Virus in Maryland including 2,085 in Anne Arundel County. 1338 deaths in Maryland have been reported so far, 99 in Anne Arundel County.
Full details can be found here (updated daily around 10:00am)
This afternoon, the Governor highlighted the following points and actions to help Marylanders fight the COVID-19 virus and re-open the state:
- The State has completed a survey of all state nursing homes
- The testing capacity is sufficient to handle any hotspots or outbreaks throughout the state
- The State has tested many of the poultry workers and will do testing shift by shift to make sure all poultry processing plant workers are tested. They will also be building a tent at Salisbury hospital.
- All front line responders (nurses, doctors, EMS, Fire, Police, etc) will now be tested.
- Maryland is in the process of hiring 1000 contact tracers and has 900 applications in house
- The key metrics (hospitalizations, ICU beds, and deaths) have all been flat or plateaued. If the trends continue into next week they are prepared to begin Stage 1 of the Maryland Strong Roadmap to Recovery which includes:
- Lifting the stay at home order along with reopening of certain type of business, and resumption of lower risk activities.
- Some steps will be allowed in advance of Stage 1. Effective tomorrow at 7am residents will be able to (with appropriate social distancing):
- Elective hospital procedures
- Boating, Tennis, Fishing, Camping, and Golfing.
- All State beaches and parks will be open
- State playgrounds will be open
- Municipalities can address other playground closures
- Dr. Karen Salmon announced that in-classroom learning will no resume this school year.
- All Childcare providers have now been paid for their services for the past six weeks.
- Full return to school will be in Stage 3 (19:06) which is tentatively planned for January 2021*.
- Graduations and ceremonies will be determined on a local level.
- Governor Hogan says that there are no wait times on the unemployment website and it has been fixed and working as planed for ten days.
* According to a working document Maryland Strong Roadmap to Recovery, Stage 1 could tentatively start on May 15, 2020 and end on September 2, 2020. Stage 2 could tentatively start on September 3, 2020 and end on December 31, 2020. Stage 3 could tentatively start on January 1, 2021. All of the dates are subject to change based on the progress made.
NOTE: Per Mike Ricci, spokesperson for Governor Hogan, the administration has not tied the roadmap to any timeline. The chart was part of a presentation made by a professor to the team.
Last week, Governor Hogan took several steps to address the issue in care communities and outlined the steps he would be taking to re-open the Maryland economy:
- Maryland is exponentially expanding testing with the acquisition of the 500K kits from South Korea
- Hogan spoke with the White House on the issues with meat and poultry plants. There are 262 confirmed cases in poultry plants in Wicomico County.
- They have opened a testing site at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury specifically to test workers in poultry processing plants.
- Other issues is outbreaks at nursing facilities. 2000+ cases at 143 nursing homes. 46% of the Maryland deaths are patients in nursing homes.
- Today Hogan issued Executive Order requiring mandatory testing of all residents and employees tested regardless of the presence of symptoms or not. This order also requires an on site physician or nurse to perform daily evaluations of all residence. The State will also deploy “bridge teams” to help administer care to residents in nursing homes.
- Hogan apologized to every Marylander who had problems with the Department of Labor’s unemployment website. 245K accounts activated, 100K new claims filed. The surge is unprecedented and every state is struggling with it. As of now they are processing 33 new accounts per minute and 780 claims per hour. The buck stops with Hogan and he will see that every Marylander gets every penny owed.
- Proclamation– May 2, 2020 is Health Care Heroes Day in Maryland. State House, Camden Yards and M&T Bank will all be lighted up in blue in the evening and will also have a flyover by the Navy Blue Angels and the Air Force Thunderbirds (Hogan said “Army Thunderbirds”)
