GOVERNOR HOGAN: Good afternoon. Maryland has surpassed the 11,500 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and with you now have more than 21,000 cases in the national capital region.
After our deadliest week to date, 818 people in the region, including 425 Marylanders, have now lost their lives to the virus. Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones.
We do have a bit of good news in that the number of Marylanders who have recovered from the virus has risen by 22% this week. Just before this press conference, I had another productive teleconference with Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser to discuss the recovery of our region.
Yesterday I led the Governor’s teleconference with President Trump, Vice President Pence, and members of the coronavirus task force. I thank the President for the progress that we have seen on the federal and state coordination issues in recent weeks with regard to some of the top needs of the states, including ventilators, testing capabilities, and the availability of PPE and supplies. I thank the President and Secretary Mnuchin for funding through the CARES Act. I also thank the President for committing to work with us to secure additional critical relief and funding for the states. With the virus continuing to devastate our economies, the national Governors association has requested federal stimulus to help address revenue shortfalls. Without this relief, states will be confronted with the prospect of making cuts to much needed services. And also make it much harder for us to have an economic recovery which is a top priority for the President and for all of America’s governors. Now is not the time for partisan politics, and we asked for the President’s leadership to weigh in and to break the logjam in the U.S. Senate so that we can get this done for the American people. The President discussed his proposed recommendations for states to consider regarding the reopening of their states. The administration has laid out a gradual phased approach that recognizes that different states are in different parts of the curve and in different situations, and that governors will have to make the decisions regarding the timing and manner of safely reopening their individual states. Our team is reviewing these guidelines and recommendations that came out just yesterday.
As I announced a few days ago, our case numbers are still growing each day, and the number of deaths is continuing to increase. But because of our early and aggressive actions and the extraordinary sacrifices of Marylanders, we are beginning to see some hopeful and encouraging signs which have allowed us to begin laying the groundwork to reopen, to rebuild, and to recover as soon as it is safe to do so. The recovery plan that we have been developing over many weeks has four building blocks that must be solidly in place before the lifting of restrictions. First, as I mentioned, the expanding of our testing capacity; second, increasing hospital surge capability; third, increasing our supply of PPE; and fourth, a robust contact tracing operation. Our incredible team has been making significant progress on every one of these criteria, and early next week, we will be providing an update on much of that progress. And then later in the week, we will be introducing our Maryland Strong roadmap to recovery in greater detail.
I want to remind Marylanders that beginning tomorrow morning, when inside retail establishments, including grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, or when riding any form of public transportation, the wearing of masks or face coverings will be necessary. Some people have said that covering their faces infringes on their rights, but this isn’t just about your rights or protecting yourself; it’s about protecting your neighbors. And the best science that we have shows that people might not know that they’re carriers of the virus, through no fault of their own, and they could infect other people. Spreading this disease infringes on your neighbors’ rights.
Two weeks ago we launched a $175 million comprehensive business relief program to help hard-pressed Marylanders and small businesses get through this difficult period. This included the COVID-19 lay off aversion fund to provide an additional $9.3 million to assist small businesses in the repayment of their employees. And I’m pleased to report that $8 million of that has already been provided to small businesses all across the state, which has helped more than 9,000 Marylanders who work in those small businesses to keep their jobs. We established a $50 million Maryland small business COVID-19 relief grant fund to provide direct immediate grants to businesses and nonprofits that have lost revenue because of the coronavirus, along with a $75 million Maryland small business COVID-19 relief loan fund to provide working capital to businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 50 employees that have lost revenue due to the pandemic. And our Commerce Department has received more than 9,100 applications for this loan fund and more than 50,200 applications for the grant fund. We’ve also created a $5 million fund to incentivize Maryland businesses to manufacture personal protective equipment or PPE and other supplies to meet the current needs of the healthcare industry. Today I’m pleased to announce that the awarding of grants to three Maryland small businesses, dbF Company Corporation, a Washington County-based tech firm which specializes in metals and plastic fabrication. They recently were awarded a contract from a Landover company to help manufacture 156,000 plastic parts for respirators. And Awesome Ninja Labs — a cool name — a Baltimore City company, will get a grant that enables them to purchase equipment and raw materials to expand their capacity to manufacture face shields. And a grant to NRL & Associates, a Queen Anne’s County manufacturer to ramp up production on their ventilator line. We will also be awarding grants to dozens of Maryland companies in the days to come.
Through the Paycheck Protection Program, the PPP, the Maryland Department of Commerce has approved $3.8 billion in loans to assist nearly 12,000 Maryland businesses. The Maryland Department of Labor is launching a new one-stop shop comprehensive online application for independent contractors, self-employed Marylanders, and all other types of claims, including federal employees, multistate wage claims, and members of the military. This will ensure that every Maryland applicant, whether they’re a W-2 employee or not, will have the option of being able to file online, which will dramatically decrease the call wait times and will also help more Marylanders get their checks faster and more efficiently.
Food banks across our state have stepped up in a truly inspiring way, and in order to boost their efforts, the state of Maryland is investing an additional $4 million to the Maryland Food Bank and the Capital Area Food Bank, and we have worked with local jurisdictions to match that investment, bringing the total to $8 million for these food banks. The Maryland Department of Human Services is also working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to dramatically accelerate the implementation of our online supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP pilot initiative which will give Maryland families in need the opportunity to be able to purchase meals online and to have them delivered to their homes at no cost.
I would like to thank Shop Rite and Amazon for permitting to waive delivery fees to make this initiative happen. This week is recognized across America as the week of the young child. And I have four young grandkids myself, and not a day goes by that I don’t think about them and about all of the young children here in Maryland. Not only have their lives been disrupted, but it’s especially confusing and frightening time for them right now. And I know it’s difficult for parents to explain to them everything that’s happening. In fact, Karen Salmon, the state superintendent of schools, will be making some announcements regarding Maryland public schools and daycares in just a moment, but before she does, I just want to take a minute to thank all of our childcare providers, our teachers and staff for all of their hard work and keeping our children and our students safe and healthy and learning during this very difficult and unprecedented time. So many of our childcare providers are providing really exemplary services while working hard to institute physical distancing measures. At Johns Hopkins childcare early learning center, run by Bright Horizons, the teachers wear fabric face coverings all day long and they’re ensuring that children and staff are washing their hands multiple times throughout the day. The YMCA of central Maryland pivoted their operations almost overnight to transform their centers into personnel childcare centers for essential personnel. And Rashmeed, a family care provider in Columbia, has prioritized helping children with their social emotional needs during the crisis. She’s even been making meals for the families of her students. There are so many people doing amazing things to help others in this time of uncertainty. It’s really been the toughest time that many of us have ever been through, but it is perhaps most difficult for our young children who are trying to understand what’s happening in our state and in our country and in our world. And I just want all of our young Marylanders and their parents and grandparents to know that we are all in this together and that we will get through this together.
With that, I’m going to turn it over to Dr. Karen Salmon.
KAREN SALMON: Thank you, Governor, and thank you for your leadership during this time.
After extensive consultation with the state Board of Education and leading experts in the state, I am extending the closure of schools to May 15th. With regards to the remainder of the school year and the summer, we will use this time to examine every option and continue to develop a long-term plan for recovery. In a very short time frame, school systems have continued to increase their digital presence and capabilities to provide learning opportunities to all students. All school systems must submit these continuity of learning plans to the State Department of Education for review. These include an overall description of how students or how systems will deliver continuity of learning to all their students, a description of the roles and responsibilities of district staff, school administrators, teachers, instructional assistants, students, and parents, a sample teacher and sample student day, a plan of accountability of how systems will monitor and assess student performance, and a description of how school system plans to address equity for special education students, English learners, students with academic needs, and homeless students. There’s also a section that identifies the professional development plan for staff and finally a description of the resources currently available for students.
We are helping school systems attain these resources such as additional devices, platforms for learning, and expanded broadband that they need to carry out their plans in an equitable way. We are hopeful that the additional $207 million in funding from the federal CARES Act, 90% of which will go directly to local school systems, will help address gaps in the availability of these resources. After speaking with local superintendents this week, school systems have also developed plans for additional digital learning and the recovery of any lost instructional time in the form of planning expanded summer school programs. State and local school officials are preparing for a number of scenarios depending on when educators and students are able to reenter school buildings.
I understand the impact of the uncertainty of this situation, and it’s created much anxiety across our school communities, especially for groups like our high school seniors. We want seniors and their families to have an opportunity to recognize their wonderful accomplishments from their time in high school and receive their diplomas. I will let you know that local superintendents have been working on a number of creative alternatives to ensure our high school seniors receive the recognition they deserve.
I would also like to take a moment to give recognition to all of our local school superintendents for their unwavering tenacity and leadership during this unprecedented time. I want to thank the teachers for their hard work and flexibility, as they provide instruction that cover our almost 900,000 students across the state. I also want to recognize the school system staff that provide support services to students such as counselors, psychologists, specialists, as their work is especially critical during this time of uncertainty. There are also some unsung heroes operating in our schools, and they are the food service workers, custodians, and maintenance staff and employees who have been working 24/7 to make and deliver food, clean and sanitize and keep our schools’ infrastructure in great shape. Thank you for your dedicated and tireless efforts. We continue to provide childcare services to more than 3,700 state funded sites across Maryland. Over 25,000 children of essential personnel are enrolled in these sites, and the state has the capacity to serve another 20,000 if the need should arise. Eligible families can continue to identify locations for childcare services at licensed child and family care centers as well as YMCAs, senior centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, through the locate hotline service available on our State Department of Education website.
I am so pleased that Maryland has received an additional $45.8 million from the federal CARES Act to support the maintenance of childcare programs and continuation of childcare services for essential personnel in our state during this pandemic. As we celebrate the week of the child, as the Governor discussed, I want to thank all these individuals providing childcare who have dedicated their lives to children. You are champions, and we thank you for stepping up during this crisis. Challenge remains as we take these unprecedented and swift steps to continue learning for students, and I want to thank the educators, parents, and students who have exhibited incredible patience and stepped up tremendously during this difficult time. Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens. Not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It’s a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results. Let’s continue to stay positive and work together while we are physically apart.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We have a number of our leaders of the administration here. Of course Fran Phillips from the Health Department. We’ll take a couple of questions.
(Question off mic).
Well, I understand the frustration. I’m a lifelong small businessman myself who ran for Governor because I was concerned about us losing businesses and people losing their jobs. So I completely understand why people are anxious to get things going. I want to get our economy back and things opened up as quickly as possible, just as much as anybody does. But we’re also going to have to do that in a safe manner. And if you look at, you know, you heard the President’s comments yesterday that many of these folks are strong supporters of kids. He was encouraged to look at his plan. His plan calls for, you can’t start to do any reopening in phase one until after 14 days of consistent numbers going down.
Our numbers are going up. So no matter who you talk to, now is not the time to open things up. But I understand people’s right to protest and I understand their frustration, because I’m just as frustrated as they are.
(Question off mic).
You know, I, again, I think a lot of people have more time to sit around sending letters. I would rather focus on trying to help save people’s lives and get things done. But I think they missed some of the things that we have been doing. You know, we lowered our prison population more than any state in America. So we reduced our nonviolent prison population dramatically prior to this crisis. And since the crisis started, I believe we’ve reduced another 2300, we’ve taken almost all the actions that people are recommending. Secretary Green has been amazingly aggressive in our effort to try to protect our prison staff and our prison population. And we’re continuing to take more steps every day. We’re obviously concerned about potential outbreaks, and, you know, it’s not an issue that we’re not concerned about, but I’m not sure how many more letters we need to get that will help us in the process.
(Question off mic).
KAREN SALMON: At this time, we’re taking great care with our decisions. I feel that this is one of those decisions that we need to make incrementally and see where we are in another month. We don’t know what’s going to happen. And I don’t mean to dash the hopes of many children and parents. There may be some other ways to have public school going forward. So that’s the reason I decided to do that.
And in answer to your second question, graduation is a local issue, but obviously it has to follow the guidelines set forth by the Governor. And what ideas I’ve heard are very creative. There are a lot of superintendents talking about virtual celebrations. So I don’t think we are eliminating ceremonies at this point.
(Question off mic).
No, it’s just the time period of extended closure. We still have until the 15th of June and in many cases the week after that.
SPEAKER: Should we see a flare-up in the fall, what will happen in the fall?
KAREN SALMON: We’re certainly looking more towards summer and summer learning programs, but we’re getting better at digital online learning. We need to do that. This is the 21st century. I’ve been saying that for a long time. So we’re just beefing up our professional development with our staff, looking at what resources we might need to get. School systems are very appreciative of this federal money that they’ll be able to use to increase their digital platforms and also their devices and professional development. They’re very excited about it.
(Question off mic).
I would rather say, I, you know, certainly there is instruction difference. I don’t think we can say that students haven’t had any instruction during this time, because students are involved in their digital learning platforms. They’re getting phone calls from their teachers or doing lessons on FaceTime, even our students with disabilities. But I think the idea for the summer is expanded opportunities, and the schools’ leaders and superintendents have been very creative thinking about how they’re going to do this. It’s going to be a very robust program from what I heard from them yesterday.
(Question off mic).
Well, it’s just like the Governor got done talking about. We have to go through all of those four things that he mentioned before we can even think about reopening. So that’s what we’re going to be taking a look at. And this is not just school. This is across the state. This plan is broad, and it’s comprehensive, and we’ll take it little by little once we see what happens.
(Question off mic).
I have no idea what individual families are doing. I imagine they’re doing what most of us did when we raised our kids and one parent stays home and one parent goes to work. So I’m not sure I understand your question.
SPEAKER: The daycare centers with 25,000 children.
KAREN SALMON: They’re doing their normal programming that childcare centers would do, and I’m sure the child brings their device, they can access that at their facility.
SPEAKER: Governor, can you tell us a little more about your meeting with the Governor of Virginia and the mayor? The phasing in of the reopening. What else can you tell us about the meeting?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I first of all want to thank Governor Northam and Mayor Bowser. We’ve had tremendous cooperation and collaboration from the beginning of this crisis. We’ve been not only have the three of us been talking on a regular basis, but our staff are talking and our chiefs of staffs and our various cabinet level folks and other members of our team are talking on a daily basis. And while we may have individual differences about how we’re going after different things, the sharing of information, the willingness to try to cooperate on things that are important has been terrific and has been throughout the crisis. I think it will continue. We talked in general terms today about some specific issues on the potential reopening, all three of us, we’re all in a similar situation. We talked about that all of our numbers are going up rather than down. We’re all in some part of a phase of talking about the gradual reopening, but not able to start that quite yet. And we all are in agreement that we want to do that in a way that is cooperative. We understand that while each area is unique, that there are certainly things that we have to do together.
(Question off mic).
So there are a lot of different sets of numbers that we look at every day. The President’s plan, which follows a pretty good outline, by the way, it’s not exactly like our plan, but he left it up to the states to tailor things, but there are some smart people on the task force, Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci and our team and the President’s team, they came up with some things to look at. You have to have 14 days of numbers going down, on hospitalization rates, ICU rates, and deaths. The number of cases we’re not looking at so much because as we dramatically increase the number of tests, our tests are going up rapidly every day. As I said, our tests are up 5,000% over the past 30 days. They’re going to continue to ramp up. The number of cases is going to rapidly rise. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it just means we’re testing a lot more people. But we’re really keeping an eye on how many people are going into the hospital, how many people are moving from the hospital into an acute or intensive care bed, and then how many people we’re losing to the disease. So those things, all three of those categories, have to be in a downward direction for 14 straight days before you can even consider the reopening of anything — and that’s according to the federal guidelines — for any state in America.
(Question off mic).
That doesn’t have anything to do with the opening of the federal government. The federal government laid out guidelines that they thought made sense for the states to consider, and we think those particular guidelines are pretty good ones to consider.
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I mean, we’re going to take a look at a lot of different things, but in phase one, those are the real numbers we’re watching. I said the other things. The four building blocks I talked about, we have to make sure we have the hospital capacity in case the numbers spike up. We have to make sure we have enough testing to handle this capability. We have to have the availability to do the contact tracing because if we start getting people out there and we have a spike, we have to know where. And the numbers going down. Those four things. And then we can start ratcheting things up in a safe, smart, gradual way.
Thank you.
Thank you, everybody.
After our deadliest week to date, 818 people in the region, including 425 Marylanders, have now lost their lives to the virus. Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones.
We do have a bit of good news in that the number of Marylanders who have recovered from the virus has risen by 22% this week. Just before this press conference, I had another productive teleconference with Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser to discuss the recovery of our region.
Yesterday I led the Governor’s teleconference with President Trump, Vice President Pence, and members of the coronavirus task force. I thank the President for the progress that we have seen on the federal and state coordination issues in recent weeks with regard to some of the top needs of the states, including ventilators, testing capabilities, and the availability of PPE and supplies. I thank the President and Secretary Mnuchin for funding through the CARES Act. I also thank the President for committing to work with us to secure additional critical relief and funding for the states. With the virus continuing to devastate our economies, the national Governors association has requested federal stimulus to help address revenue shortfalls. Without this relief, states will be confronted with the prospect of making cuts to much needed services. And also make it much harder for us to have an economic recovery which is a top priority for the President and for all of America’s governors. Now is not the time for partisan politics, and we asked for the President’s leadership to weigh in and to break the logjam in the U.S. Senate so that we can get this done for the American people. The President discussed his proposed recommendations for states to consider regarding the reopening of their states. The administration has laid out a gradual phased approach that recognizes that different states are in different parts of the curve and in different situations, and that governors will have to make the decisions regarding the timing and manner of safely reopening their individual states. Our team is reviewing these guidelines and recommendations that came out just yesterday.
As I announced a few days ago, our case numbers are still growing each day, and the number of deaths is continuing to increase. But because of our early and aggressive actions and the extraordinary sacrifices of Marylanders, we are beginning to see some hopeful and encouraging signs which have allowed us to begin laying the groundwork to reopen, to rebuild, and to recover as soon as it is safe to do so. The recovery plan that we have been developing over many weeks has four building blocks that must be solidly in place before the lifting of restrictions. First, as I mentioned, the expanding of our testing capacity; second, increasing hospital surge capability; third, increasing our supply of PPE; and fourth, a robust contact tracing operation. Our incredible team has been making significant progress on every one of these criteria, and early next week, we will be providing an update on much of that progress. And then later in the week, we will be introducing our Maryland Strong roadmap to recovery in greater detail.
I want to remind Marylanders that beginning tomorrow morning, when inside retail establishments, including grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, or when riding any form of public transportation, the wearing of masks or face coverings will be necessary. Some people have said that covering their faces infringes on their rights, but this isn’t just about your rights or protecting yourself; it’s about protecting your neighbors. And the best science that we have shows that people might not know that they’re carriers of the virus, through no fault of their own, and they could infect other people. Spreading this disease infringes on your neighbors’ rights.
Two weeks ago we launched a $175 million comprehensive business relief program to help hard-pressed Marylanders and small businesses get through this difficult period. This included the COVID-19 lay off aversion fund to provide an additional $9.3 million to assist small businesses in the repayment of their employees. And I’m pleased to report that $8 million of that has already been provided to small businesses all across the state, which has helped more than 9,000 Marylanders who work in those small businesses to keep their jobs. We established a $50 million Maryland small business COVID-19 relief grant fund to provide direct immediate grants to businesses and nonprofits that have lost revenue because of the coronavirus, along with a $75 million Maryland small business COVID-19 relief loan fund to provide working capital to businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 50 employees that have lost revenue due to the pandemic. And our Commerce Department has received more than 9,100 applications for this loan fund and more than 50,200 applications for the grant fund. We’ve also created a $5 million fund to incentivize Maryland businesses to manufacture personal protective equipment or PPE and other supplies to meet the current needs of the healthcare industry. Today I’m pleased to announce that the awarding of grants to three Maryland small businesses, dbF Company Corporation, a Washington County-based tech firm which specializes in metals and plastic fabrication. They recently were awarded a contract from a Landover company to help manufacture 156,000 plastic parts for respirators. And Awesome Ninja Labs — a cool name — a Baltimore City company, will get a grant that enables them to purchase equipment and raw materials to expand their capacity to manufacture face shields. And a grant to NRL & Associates, a Queen Anne’s County manufacturer to ramp up production on their ventilator line. We will also be awarding grants to dozens of Maryland companies in the days to come.
Through the Paycheck Protection Program, the PPP, the Maryland Department of Commerce has approved $3.8 billion in loans to assist nearly 12,000 Maryland businesses. The Maryland Department of Labor is launching a new one-stop shop comprehensive online application for independent contractors, self-employed Marylanders, and all other types of claims, including federal employees, multistate wage claims, and members of the military. This will ensure that every Maryland applicant, whether they’re a W-2 employee or not, will have the option of being able to file online, which will dramatically decrease the call wait times and will also help more Marylanders get their checks faster and more efficiently.
Food banks across our state have stepped up in a truly inspiring way, and in order to boost their efforts, the state of Maryland is investing an additional $4 million to the Maryland Food Bank and the Capital Area Food Bank, and we have worked with local jurisdictions to match that investment, bringing the total to $8 million for these food banks. The Maryland Department of Human Services is also working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to dramatically accelerate the implementation of our online supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP pilot initiative which will give Maryland families in need the opportunity to be able to purchase meals online and to have them delivered to their homes at no cost.
I would like to thank Shop Rite and Amazon for permitting to waive delivery fees to make this initiative happen. This week is recognized across America as the week of the young child. And I have four young grandkids myself, and not a day goes by that I don’t think about them and about all of the young children here in Maryland. Not only have their lives been disrupted, but it’s especially confusing and frightening time for them right now. And I know it’s difficult for parents to explain to them everything that’s happening. In fact, Karen Salmon, the state superintendent of schools, will be making some announcements regarding Maryland public schools and daycares in just a moment, but before she does, I just want to take a minute to thank all of our childcare providers, our teachers and staff for all of their hard work and keeping our children and our students safe and healthy and learning during this very difficult and unprecedented time. So many of our childcare providers are providing really exemplary services while working hard to institute physical distancing measures. At Johns Hopkins childcare early learning center, run by Bright Horizons, the teachers wear fabric face coverings all day long and they’re ensuring that children and staff are washing their hands multiple times throughout the day. The YMCA of central Maryland pivoted their operations almost overnight to transform their centers into personnel childcare centers for essential personnel. And Rashmeed, a family care provider in Columbia, has prioritized helping children with their social emotional needs during the crisis. She’s even been making meals for the families of her students. There are so many people doing amazing things to help others in this time of uncertainty. It’s really been the toughest time that many of us have ever been through, but it is perhaps most difficult for our young children who are trying to understand what’s happening in our state and in our country and in our world. And I just want all of our young Marylanders and their parents and grandparents to know that we are all in this together and that we will get through this together.
With that, I’m going to turn it over to Dr. Karen Salmon.
KAREN SALMON: Thank you, Governor, and thank you for your leadership during this time.
After extensive consultation with the state Board of Education and leading experts in the state, I am extending the closure of schools to May 15th. With regards to the remainder of the school year and the summer, we will use this time to examine every option and continue to develop a long-term plan for recovery. In a very short time frame, school systems have continued to increase their digital presence and capabilities to provide learning opportunities to all students. All school systems must submit these continuity of learning plans to the State Department of Education for review. These include an overall description of how students or how systems will deliver continuity of learning to all their students, a description of the roles and responsibilities of district staff, school administrators, teachers, instructional assistants, students, and parents, a sample teacher and sample student day, a plan of accountability of how systems will monitor and assess student performance, and a description of how school system plans to address equity for special education students, English learners, students with academic needs, and homeless students. There’s also a section that identifies the professional development plan for staff and finally a description of the resources currently available for students.
We are helping school systems attain these resources such as additional devices, platforms for learning, and expanded broadband that they need to carry out their plans in an equitable way. We are hopeful that the additional $207 million in funding from the federal CARES Act, 90% of which will go directly to local school systems, will help address gaps in the availability of these resources. After speaking with local superintendents this week, school systems have also developed plans for additional digital learning and the recovery of any lost instructional time in the form of planning expanded summer school programs. State and local school officials are preparing for a number of scenarios depending on when educators and students are able to reenter school buildings.
I understand the impact of the uncertainty of this situation, and it’s created much anxiety across our school communities, especially for groups like our high school seniors. We want seniors and their families to have an opportunity to recognize their wonderful accomplishments from their time in high school and receive their diplomas. I will let you know that local superintendents have been working on a number of creative alternatives to ensure our high school seniors receive the recognition they deserve.
I would also like to take a moment to give recognition to all of our local school superintendents for their unwavering tenacity and leadership during this unprecedented time. I want to thank the teachers for their hard work and flexibility, as they provide instruction that cover our almost 900,000 students across the state. I also want to recognize the school system staff that provide support services to students such as counselors, psychologists, specialists, as their work is especially critical during this time of uncertainty. There are also some unsung heroes operating in our schools, and they are the food service workers, custodians, and maintenance staff and employees who have been working 24/7 to make and deliver food, clean and sanitize and keep our schools’ infrastructure in great shape. Thank you for your dedicated and tireless efforts. We continue to provide childcare services to more than 3,700 state funded sites across Maryland. Over 25,000 children of essential personnel are enrolled in these sites, and the state has the capacity to serve another 20,000 if the need should arise. Eligible families can continue to identify locations for childcare services at licensed child and family care centers as well as YMCAs, senior centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, through the locate hotline service available on our State Department of Education website.
I am so pleased that Maryland has received an additional $45.8 million from the federal CARES Act to support the maintenance of childcare programs and continuation of childcare services for essential personnel in our state during this pandemic. As we celebrate the week of the child, as the Governor discussed, I want to thank all these individuals providing childcare who have dedicated their lives to children. You are champions, and we thank you for stepping up during this crisis. Challenge remains as we take these unprecedented and swift steps to continue learning for students, and I want to thank the educators, parents, and students who have exhibited incredible patience and stepped up tremendously during this difficult time. Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens. Not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It’s a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results. Let’s continue to stay positive and work together while we are physically apart.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We have a number of our leaders of the administration here. Of course Fran Phillips from the Health Department. We’ll take a couple of questions.
(Question off mic).
Well, I understand the frustration. I’m a lifelong small businessman myself who ran for Governor because I was concerned about us losing businesses and people losing their jobs. So I completely understand why people are anxious to get things going. I want to get our economy back and things opened up as quickly as possible, just as much as anybody does. But we’re also going to have to do that in a safe manner. And if you look at, you know, you heard the President’s comments yesterday that many of these folks are strong supporters of kids. He was encouraged to look at his plan. His plan calls for, you can’t start to do any reopening in phase one until after 14 days of consistent numbers going down.
Our numbers are going up. So no matter who you talk to, now is not the time to open things up. But I understand people’s right to protest and I understand their frustration, because I’m just as frustrated as they are.
(Question off mic).
You know, I, again, I think a lot of people have more time to sit around sending letters. I would rather focus on trying to help save people’s lives and get things done. But I think they missed some of the things that we have been doing. You know, we lowered our prison population more than any state in America. So we reduced our nonviolent prison population dramatically prior to this crisis. And since the crisis started, I believe we’ve reduced another 2300, we’ve taken almost all the actions that people are recommending. Secretary Green has been amazingly aggressive in our effort to try to protect our prison staff and our prison population. And we’re continuing to take more steps every day. We’re obviously concerned about potential outbreaks, and, you know, it’s not an issue that we’re not concerned about, but I’m not sure how many more letters we need to get that will help us in the process.
(Question off mic).
KAREN SALMON: At this time, we’re taking great care with our decisions. I feel that this is one of those decisions that we need to make incrementally and see where we are in another month. We don’t know what’s going to happen. And I don’t mean to dash the hopes of many children and parents. There may be some other ways to have public school going forward. So that’s the reason I decided to do that.
And in answer to your second question, graduation is a local issue, but obviously it has to follow the guidelines set forth by the Governor. And what ideas I’ve heard are very creative. There are a lot of superintendents talking about virtual celebrations. So I don’t think we are eliminating ceremonies at this point.
(Question off mic).
No, it’s just the time period of extended closure. We still have until the 15th of June and in many cases the week after that.
SPEAKER: Should we see a flare-up in the fall, what will happen in the fall?
KAREN SALMON: We’re certainly looking more towards summer and summer learning programs, but we’re getting better at digital online learning. We need to do that. This is the 21st century. I’ve been saying that for a long time. So we’re just beefing up our professional development with our staff, looking at what resources we might need to get. School systems are very appreciative of this federal money that they’ll be able to use to increase their digital platforms and also their devices and professional development. They’re very excited about it.
(Question off mic).
I would rather say, I, you know, certainly there is instruction difference. I don’t think we can say that students haven’t had any instruction during this time, because students are involved in their digital learning platforms. They’re getting phone calls from their teachers or doing lessons on FaceTime, even our students with disabilities. But I think the idea for the summer is expanded opportunities, and the schools’ leaders and superintendents have been very creative thinking about how they’re going to do this. It’s going to be a very robust program from what I heard from them yesterday.
(Question off mic).
Well, it’s just like the Governor got done talking about. We have to go through all of those four things that he mentioned before we can even think about reopening. So that’s what we’re going to be taking a look at. And this is not just school. This is across the state. This plan is broad, and it’s comprehensive, and we’ll take it little by little once we see what happens.
(Question off mic).
I have no idea what individual families are doing. I imagine they’re doing what most of us did when we raised our kids and one parent stays home and one parent goes to work. So I’m not sure I understand your question.
SPEAKER: The daycare centers with 25,000 children.
KAREN SALMON: They’re doing their normal programming that childcare centers would do, and I’m sure the child brings their device, they can access that at their facility.
SPEAKER: Governor, can you tell us a little more about your meeting with the Governor of Virginia and the mayor? The phasing in of the reopening. What else can you tell us about the meeting?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I first of all want to thank Governor Northam and Mayor Bowser. We’ve had tremendous cooperation and collaboration from the beginning of this crisis. We’ve been not only have the three of us been talking on a regular basis, but our staff are talking and our chiefs of staffs and our various cabinet level folks and other members of our team are talking on a daily basis. And while we may have individual differences about how we’re going after different things, the sharing of information, the willingness to try to cooperate on things that are important has been terrific and has been throughout the crisis. I think it will continue. We talked in general terms today about some specific issues on the potential reopening, all three of us, we’re all in a similar situation. We talked about that all of our numbers are going up rather than down. We’re all in some part of a phase of talking about the gradual reopening, but not able to start that quite yet. And we all are in agreement that we want to do that in a way that is cooperative. We understand that while each area is unique, that there are certainly things that we have to do together.
(Question off mic).
So there are a lot of different sets of numbers that we look at every day. The President’s plan, which follows a pretty good outline, by the way, it’s not exactly like our plan, but he left it up to the states to tailor things, but there are some smart people on the task force, Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci and our team and the President’s team, they came up with some things to look at. You have to have 14 days of numbers going down, on hospitalization rates, ICU rates, and deaths. The number of cases we’re not looking at so much because as we dramatically increase the number of tests, our tests are going up rapidly every day. As I said, our tests are up 5,000% over the past 30 days. They’re going to continue to ramp up. The number of cases is going to rapidly rise. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it just means we’re testing a lot more people. But we’re really keeping an eye on how many people are going into the hospital, how many people are moving from the hospital into an acute or intensive care bed, and then how many people we’re losing to the disease. So those things, all three of those categories, have to be in a downward direction for 14 straight days before you can even consider the reopening of anything — and that’s according to the federal guidelines — for any state in America.
(Question off mic).
That doesn’t have anything to do with the opening of the federal government. The federal government laid out guidelines that they thought made sense for the states to consider, and we think those particular guidelines are pretty good ones to consider.
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I mean, we’re going to take a look at a lot of different things, but in phase one, those are the real numbers we’re watching. I said the other things. The four building blocks I talked about, we have to make sure we have the hospital capacity in case the numbers spike up. We have to make sure we have enough testing to handle this capability. We have to have the availability to do the contact tracing because if we start getting people out there and we have a spike, we have to know where. And the numbers going down. Those four things. And then we can start ratcheting things up in a safe, smart, gradual way.
Thank you.
Thank you, everybody.