ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Wednesday the state is beginning to transition more from containment and mitigation of the coronavirus to planning for a gradual reopening of the state and its businesses.
While the number of cases are still rising in Maryland, the Republican governor said there are signs to be cautiously optimistic. For example, the number of hospitalizations appear to be stabilizing and the state has increased its stock of protective equipment and the state’s capacity to care for the sick.
“It is too soon to say, ’yes, we’re going to start opening already.’ We’re not going to flip the light switch,” Hogan said at a news conference, before adding, “It’s not too soon to start laying out what that will look like and maybe start considering when first steps might be.”
Hogan emphasized that people must remain vigilant and continue staying at home and practicing social distancing for now. To drive home the point, the governor said he signed an executive order to require people to wear face coverings in stores and on public transportation. It will be effective 7 a.m. Saturday. He said people may have to become more accustomed to wearing masks in order to safely reopen the state.
Meanwhile, Maryland surpassed 10,000 reported cases of the virus. The state also reported 47 more deaths Wednesday morning, bring the total to at least 349. For the first time, the state added “probable deaths” to its daily report, adding another 64 deaths.
Also, a nursing home in Baltimore confirmed 129 cases among residents and an additional 41 among staff at FutureCare’s Lochearn facility. Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young said FutureCare implemented a process known as “widespread surveillance testing” at the facility, which monitors the intensity and spread of the disease in a community with high transmission. The city said many at the facility who tested positive are not symptomatic.
Hogan said experts have been working on a road map for reopening the state for several weeks.
“We will be discussing those recovery plans in much greater detail next week, but I can assure you that those plans will be well thought out, gradual and safe, because if the recovery is not done in a thoughtful and responsible way it will not only cost lives, but it would deepen the economic crisis and actually prolong the problems and slow our recovery,” Hogan said.
State lawmakers also expressed interest in weighing plans to reopen during a conference call with a panel on COVID-19. Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, said there have been a lot of questions about what this new phase will look like.
Maryland’s recovery plan will have four critical building blocks, Hogan said. They include the need to expand the state’s testing capability, which already has increased greatly in the past month, he said, as Maryland is on track to more than triple its current capacity up to 10,000 tests per day..
The governor said Maryland also will need to increase its hospital surge capacity by 6,000 beds. Third, the state will need to build on its rising supply of personal protection equipment. Hogan also said the state needs to build a robust contact tracing operation to enable the state to investigate every single positive case of the virus. He said about 250 people are focused on tracing cases, and the state plans to increase that force to at least 1,000 people.
On Tuesday night, Maryland’s chief judge issued an order directing judges to confer with stakeholders to identify people who are being detained for pretrial or are eligible for sentence modification and to expedite hearings for their release. Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera issued a similar order for detained juveniles on Monday night.
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