GOVERNOR HOGAN: Good afternoon. Joining me today are Dr. Karen Salmon, the state superintendent of schools, and Dr. Jinlene Chan, the acting Deputy Secretary for public health services at the Maryland Department of Health.
Back on March 12, Maryland and Ohio became the first states in the nation to close public schools statewide in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It was one of the early and aggressive actions we took to keep Marylanders — especially our children — safe, stop the spread of the virus, and to save lives.
With our safe, effective, and gradual reopening plan, the development of the robust contact tracing operation, our successful long-term testing strategy, and most importantly, with the vigilance of the people of Maryland, our mitigation efforts have been extremely successful. Our mitigation efforts, our health metrics are doing much better than most of the rest of the country.
Our statewide positivity rate is down to 3.3%. A decline of more than 87% since it peaked at 26.91% 132 days ago on April 17th.
The World Health Organization and the CDC recommend that positivity rates should remain at or below 5% for at least 14 consecutive days before moving forward with further actions to reopen.
As of today, Maryland’s positivity rate has been under 5% for 63 consecutive days, since June 25th. It has been under 4% for 19 consecutive days, since August 8th.
We have seen dramatic improvements in the positivity rates of every single one of our most populous jurisdictions in the state. And last week, for the first time, the COVID-19 positivity rate for all 24 jurisdictions in Maryland fell below the 5% milestone. 17 of our 24 jurisdictions now have positivity rates below 3.5%.
Over the last month or more, state health officials have focused on addressing the rising infection rates we had among young people. I’m happy to report that we have made dramatic improvements in that area as well. The gap in the positivity rates among Marylanders under 35 and Marylanders age 35 and older has narrowed significantly. Positivity rate among Marylanders under 35 has declined by 44% since July 23rd and has now fallen below 4% to 3.79%.
Positivity rate among Marylanders 35 and older has dropped below 3% and is now at 2.97%.
Hospitalizations have decreased by nearly 76% since they peaked 117 days ago at 1,711, and just in the last month alone, we have seen a nearly 32% decline in ICU levels.
We’re also seeing a continued and sustained drop in the cases per 100,000, which is an additional metric now being utilized by Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and the coronavirus task force. To our safe, effective, and phased reopening plan, not only have we done better on our health metrics than the nation and most other states, but we’re also doing much better on our economic recovery than the nation and most of the other states across the country. The state of Maryland has now added and regained 156,200 jobs in 90 days. Our unemployment rate has dropped to 7.6%, which while higher than the pandemic is more than 25% better than the national unemployment rate, and it is the very best of all the states in our region.
This week we saw the very lowest number of unemployment claims since the first week of the pandemic in early March. Unlike many other states that have experienced spikes of the virus and increasing rates of infection and who have had to take action to reshut down their economies, we have done none of those things. We were able to keep more than 70% of our economy open throughout the entire crisis, and we have had more than 98% of our economy open since we completed all phase 2 reopenings 70 days ago on June 19th. Maryland truly is open for business. Our Maryland economy is getting back on track and making a steady recovery.
But in order for us to keep moving forward and to keep making progress, it is absolutely critical that we begin the process of getting our children safely and gradually back into the classrooms. I believe very strongly that every single child in Maryland deserves access to a world class education, regardless of what neighborhood they happen to grow up in, and that is true now more than ever before. We have been taking steps to help those students most affected by COVID-19. Our administration has committed $345 million more for our kids in additional education funding through the federal CARES Act for K-12 technology funding, competitive innovation grants to address academic accessibility, remote learning enhancements, tutoring, and learning programs for at-risk students and expanded broadband access for education.
We continue to find innovative ways to maximize resources, to provide critical funding for those students and communities that need help the most. But there is broad and overwhelming agreement among public health leaders, education experts, and parents that finding a way to begin safely returning children to classrooms must be a top priority. I want to sincerely thank all of the parents, childcare providers, teachers, and staff for their hard work to adapt to very difficult circumstances in recent months in order to keep our children and students healthy and learning during this very difficult and unprecedented time. But now nearly everyone agrees that there is no substitute for in-person instruction. Every single day I hear from parents all across the state who are extremely frustrated with the fact that even though our health metrics statewide and in every single county look great and are continuing to dramatically improve, some of the county school boards have not even attempted to develop any safe reopening plans which would bring any kids back for any form of in-person instruction. This is simply not acceptable. It is essential that we all work together on flexible hybrid plans to safely get some of our kids back into classrooms and into healthy and supportive learning environments.
Today I am announcing that as a result of our improved health metrics, every single county school system in the state of Maryland is now fully authorized to begin safely reopening. Since publishing their recovery plan for education back in May, Dr. Salmon and the Maryland State Department of Education have met with county boards of education, local school superintendents, teachers, parents, and other key stakeholders to assist their collaboration on safe and effective recovery plans for our Maryland public schools. County school boards were required to submit their final plans to State Department of Education by August 14th. Dr. Salmon and the State Department of Education have spent the past few weeks carefully reviewing all of those proposed plans.
The good news is that the majority of our counties, 16 county school systems, have developed plans which include returning children to the schools for some form of in-person instruction this fall, including students with special needs.
However, 8 jurisdictions did not submit any reopening plans that attempt to bring any kids back into the classrooms this calendar year. All of our key metrics have dramatically improved, and since they’ve all dramatically improved, since some of these counties made their original quick decisions on mass closures. So let me be clear: The State Department of Education and the Maryland Department of Health believe that all county school systems are able to begin safely reopening. Of course, the authority and decision making on those safe reopenings continues to rest with those county boards of education, but their decisions should and must be based on a new set of statewide metrics, guidelines, and benchmarks that are being announced today which have been established by the Maryland Department of Health, in collaboration with the Maryland State Department of Education. Perhaps it was easier for a local school board to simply say they weren’t going to open or develop plans to safely reopen or to bring any children back in for any in-classroom instruction for the rest of the calendar year, but that is not acceptable. It is not in line with our health metrics or with state policy, and it is not the right thing for our Maryland children.
The hard work lies in developing the safe reopening plans, hybrid systems, and collaborative solutions to find ways to bring more kids back in, for at least some in-person instruction.
The State Department of Education has asked county school boards to do what other aspects of government have already done and what the private sector, including daycares, nursing homes, small businesses, retail shops, restaurants, and churches and houses of worship have done and been doing for months to develop safe and phased reopening plans that can help us begin to put some sense of normalcy back into the lives of our students, parents, and teachers while at the same time working diligently to keep them safe.
This global pandemic has been an extremely difficult time for nearly everyone across our state and our country. But it has been perhaps most difficult for our children. And I want to take a moment to assure our youngest Marylanders and their parents and grandparents that we do all care about you, that we are all working hard for you, that we are all in this together, and that we will get through this together.
Now, in just a few minutes, state superintendent of schools, Dr. Karen Salmon, will provide more detail on the status of MSDE’s plans for the reopening of schools in Maryland, but first I would like to turn it over to Dr. Jinlene Chan, acting Deputy Secretary for public health at the Maryland Department of Health, to discuss the new metrics, these new state health guidelines and protocols for local school boards, which were developed by the Maryland Department of Health, following CDC guidance and standards, and in consultation with county health officers and the Maryland State Department of Education, which are the building blocks for getting our kids safely back into the classrooms.
Dr. Chan?
JINLENE CHAN: Thank you, Governor.
So as Governor Hogan said, over the last few months, our department has been carefully looking at available guidance from CDC and also the guidance from our academic institutions, reviewed metrics and thresholds that are being used by other states, that have been developed so that we can develop our own metrics and guidance. We have, as was mentioned, worked very closely with our partners at MSDE. We have consulted with our local health officers. And also our own public health professionals within the Maryland Department of Health.
The metrics that were selected are in line with what many states are already using and also what many of you may already be familiar with. And across the state, we are now at levels that we believe can allow all schools to move forward with some level of in-person learning. Really over the summer we have seen hospitalizations decline and we have seen our positivity rates decline, and as was mentioned last week, all jurisdictions came below 5% positivity for the first time.
So I wanted to briefly talk through the metrics and the guidance that we are putting forth today for all school systems and schools. I want to first emphasize that this guidance should not strip decision making to move forward. It is not prescriptive, and flexibility is provided for schools to decide how to make decisions in order to best meet the educational needs of their students along with taking into account what the needs of their staff are and in accordance with the CDC guidance and the MDH guidance, and they need to be able to implement those safely.
The metrics that we’ll be using include test positivity. So what this reflects is both the number of tests done across the state as well as the level of community spread, and in conjunction, have to consider also the cases per 100,000 population, or case rates. What this metric shows is the level of community spread, but it’s adjusted for the population size in any particular jurisdiction. So in terms of what the decision tree or the algorithm is, first we would like at test positivity in the jurisdiction and whether or not it is above or below 5% over a 7-day period. Then we would look at the 7-day average for the case rates. Again, this is cases per 100,000 population for that jurisdiction.
Jurisdictions that are both below 5% test positivity and 5 cases per 100,000 should have the ability to hold in-person instruction as long as all recommended guidance on physical distancing, mask use, and other measures are able to be put in place.
Jurisdictions with higher case rates should be able to put in place some sort of hybrid model of education with some partial in-person instruction. As the Governor announced, as of today, by these metrics, all jurisdictions across the state of Maryland could open for some level of in-person instruction. As they do look at the opportunities to do so, for any in-person gatherings that schools have with students or staff, they must be able to follow all of the CDC and the MDH guidance, and especially in relation to maintaining physical distancing between people of 6 feet or greater, wearing a face covering at all times while on school grounds or in school buildings, as well as in school-provided transportation. Exclusion of staff or students who are positive for COVID-19 or who exhibit symptoms of COVID-like illness. And cleaning and disinfection measures. Those are all some of the critical components that schools must take into account before they’re able to open for that in-person instruction.
We know the impact of school closures on families and particularly students’ educational needs and emotional well-being. I have three kids of my own. All three will be going into school this year. And I know some of the struggles that families faced when schools closed over the spring and recognize the challenges that families have. But we also recognize that it is imperative to protect kids and school staff to the greatest extent possible from the risk of COVID-19 infection while in school setting.
And so that is the balance that we have been trying to strike with our guidance and with the metrics that were selected and the thresholds, and we believe that the guidance provides a balanced approach for schools to be able to follow to reopen in a safe manner.
So thank you, and I would like to introduce Dr. Karen Salmon from the Maryland State Department of Education for her remarks.
KAREN SALMON: Thank you, Dr. Chan, and thank you, Governor.
Ensuring that our children return to school safely as we continue to confront this pandemic is one of the greatest challenges facing our nation. It’s impossible to ignore the impact that not having students in the classroom is having on every area of daily life. It is our responsibility as a society and as a state to make sure that school buildings reopen safely for in-person instruction as soon as possible.
Earlier this week the state Board of Education reviewed the reopening plans of all 24 local school systems for the upcoming school year and will be continuing to evaluate the implementation of each plan in the coming weeks. Next week the state board will discuss my recommendation on the minimum number of hours of real-time, face-to-face instruction that systems must provide the students during this initial period of virtual learning. I believe that every child deserves to have a high-quality education every day of the school year. That means 5 days a week and 6 hours a day. I believe that during this time of virtual learning, at least 3 and a half hours daily of that time should be guided synchronously by a teacher. Setting this standard is the only way to assure an equitable education for all children across our state. I’ve heard loud and clear from parents across the state that what occurred this past spring is not acceptable and we can’t allow that to happen again. Parents of our at-risk children and our children with special needs have been especially consistent with their needs of more direct instruction. As the Governor mentioned, our COVID numbers have improved considerably. Today, in light of those improving numbers and with these specific metrics provided by the Department of Health, I am strongly encouraging local school systems to reevaluate their mode of instruction by the end of the first quarter of the upcoming school year, especially if they have indicated that they are maintaining a virtual delivery system until January of 2021. Given the metrics provided by the State Department, schools in the lowest risk jurisdiction should be able to resume some form of in-person instruction for pre-K through high school students with proper social distancing, hygiene measures, facial coverings, and other mitigation practices in place. While adherence to these metrics for reentry into classrooms are not considered requirements, I am strongly encouraging the local school systems to utilize our improving numbers and the provided metrics as a driving force for the decision to return to school buildings. At this point, as the Governor said, 16 school systems have already announced their intentions to begin small group instructions at various points in the fall. Many school systems have demonstrated tremendous leadership and initiative by bringing small groups of students back in a safe environment in counties like Calvert and Worcester over the summer, showing how small group instruction can be provided during the pandemic. We saw photos of desks at a distance, masks being worn by students, outdoor breaks for students from mask wearing, and limited capacity in the classroom.
The state stands ready to assist school systems that make the decision to bring students back in person and have $10 million in grant funding to be available for systems who are able to move towards in-person instruction at the end of the first marking period.
Health and safety precautions must remain in place once we begin to bring students back into the schools, and school systems should continue to work in conjunction with local health officials to monitor the trends and metrics and any outbreaks in the area schools.
As it relates to the immediate situation regarding schools and childcare, every local school system at this point had made the decision to begin the year virtually. This is understandably causing additional immediate need for available childcare. Currently more than 77% of childcare providers across the state have reopened their facilities at this time, and assisting in that reopening while expediting the licensing process for providers is one of the State Department of Education’s primary goals right now. We receive countless requests to raise the capacity restrictions on childcare programs and expand the number of children eligible to attend the beginning of this school year. However, it would be ill logical to deny children the opportunity to return to the classroom only to increase the number of children congregating in another location, essentially serving as a de facto replacement for a school environment. As school systems reconsider their decisions to return to in-person instruction, we will also continue to reassess whether we can increase the capacity in childcare classrooms. The Governor and I will be traveling to different school sites in Maryland in the coming weeks to observe systems that are bringing small groups of students back into a safe and educationally effective environment. I look forward to greeting our students and educators in the coming months, and I wish every one of our over 900,000 student as a healthy, safe, and productive school year.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you very much.
With that, we’ll take some questions.
(Question off mic).
I mean, this is the way our laws work. The locally elected and school boards have the priority to make these decisions. Obviously with some guidance and regulations from the state board of ed. And with the input of the state Health Department. Some ask for more guidance and more metrics, which we’ve provided today, but we’re not going to order them to go back and open schools. But we’re going to go back to them and strongly suggest that since the numbers have dramatically improved since many of them made these decisions or started to work on their plan, that we provide incentives, as Dr. Salmon said, people working toward getting kids back in class for some instruction.
(Question off mic).
I don’t want to speculate on motivations. I think it’s different in different areas. I’m sure a big part of this is their motivation is to want to keep kids safe. As I mentioned in my remarks, I simply think it’s easier to say we’re not going to bring any kids back for the rest of the year as opposed to sitting down and doing the hard work of trying to figure out how could we get kids back in for safe instruction. It’s just a lot of hard work. And we’re going to ask them to go back and do some more of that hard work. School systems are involved in bringing back kids for some in-class instruction, which we think is terrific. But 8 of them just said we’re not even going to consider it. To me and I think to all of us, it doesn’t make any sense. We’re going to ask them to go back and reconsider. But also, the numbers have gotten dramatically better than they were as they were going through some of these decisions a month or two or three ago.
(Question off mic).
We don’t want to, like I remember the President saying he was going to order all schools to reopen. We don’t have the authority to tell the school systems what they must do. They have that authority. But we are giving them metrics which they asked for. We are providing incentives, financial incentives, for them to get open. And we’re all saying, you have the authority to now start to open. And I think we’re going to go back and put pressure on them to say, we want you to go back and take a look at your plans. It’s not acceptable to say you’re going to shut for the rest of the year. Dr. Salmon said they’ve gone back to the drawing board at least by the end of the first quarter, so half of this year they’ll get people back in. So we’re going to do what we can within the law, but we’re not going to change the state law to take away the authority of the local school boards.
(Question off mic).
I would ask Dr. Chan to address those. The Health Department, I’m not sure who the doctor is at Hopkins, but the Health Department has given a great deal of thought to that.
JINLENE CHAN: Thank you for that question. That’s really critically important.
So the metrics that we laid out are very general guidance for school systems and schools to be able to make some decisions. However, if there are instances where there is a case or an outbreak, then that would be part of the partnership and discussion with the local health officer to make decisions on whether or not there may need to be additional mitigation measures or if, in fact, if it is more widespread, whether a classroom may need to be shut down or in certain circumstances that particular individual school. And so those will be taken on a case-by-case basis as we identify outbreaks or as we identify cases. That will be a discussion for local Health Departments.
(Question off mic).
Right. So that is part of the — it’s also about how many people might be impacted. And so if there is a case where there’s a number of different folks who may need to be quarantined, for example, it’s hard to give specific guidance to say, yes, if there’s X number of cases, we shall do this. Every circumstance is unique and every school is unique. And so we would certainly look at the situation to identify how widespread the potential contact might be to determine what the most effective measures to mitigate would be.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I think that certainly we ought to take into consideration the thoughts and the concerns of the teachers union and all of the teachers, whether they’re part of a union or not, but they need to take into account these duly elected boards of education. They need to listen to parents and other stakeholders, and not just listen to one particular interest group and make decisions. I think they need to hold additional public hearings and go back to the drawing board.
Frankly, I think the question earlier was could we somehow change the law to order local boards what to do. That’s not going to happen. But I think what we’re seeing in a number of other states, and we probably could see here, is communities and parents and taxpayers are going to their local board, who has the authorities, and pushing back against the union and saying, we want you to get our kids back into the classrooms. So that’s really where the impact is.
(Question off mic).
Some are.
(Question off mic).
So my desire would be to try to get as many kids back into as many classrooms as we can in a safe way. But I also, you know, I’m not going to dictate what those — I’m not the one who has that responsibility. It’s for these two very smart women and the entire departments that they run, together with the local school boards and the local health officers. And I think they have put a lot of thought into this. And now we’re asking some of the duly elected school board members to go back and put a little more thought into it as well.
(Question off mic).
Yes, please. She’s much smarter than me.
KAREN SALMON: Not true. The Governor has several honorary doctorate degrees.
Yes, sir.
(Question off mic).
I think really, people have been asking for more definitive metrics for hoping schools, and so that’s what Dr. Chan and I and our departments have been working on over the last couple of weeks to get these out. And I think these will provide systems with a little more confidence that they can open and move forward, and maybe and hopefully that they can maybe not make decisions for a whole, you know, half of the school year. That’s 90 days. That’s a long time to have virtual instruction when we know that virtual instruction is very difficult for parents, very difficult for children, especially young children, especially children who have disabilities or children who do not have English as their first language.
So we’re hopeful that they will reevaluate based on these metrics and feel more confident about reopening.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: On that topic, by the way, Prince George’s and a number of the larger jurisdictions, following up with Brad’s question about the teachers’ union, they made really quick and early decisions, but the deadline was August 14th. The 24 jurisdictions just turned them in. They just spent less than 2 weeks of reviewing those plans and looking at those. That doesn’t mean PG County made the right decision. At the time, they were well over 5% infection rate and rising. Now they’re well under 5% and declining. So they should go back and reconsider.
(Question off mic).
Yeah, sure. I guess the reason why we thought it was a good choice is 3 years ago he worked for us. He left the state to go to MES. He was the public works administrator, and our deputy Chief of Staff for about a year and a half and did a good job for us.
He had come in and helped us out during the pandemic and done some good work. And we thought he would be a good choice.
Not aware of any of these current issues that we’re now hearing about. MES is a strange creature, not really under our purview. I don’t know much about what goes on over there. But we haven’t heard a single complaint ever in 3 years until all of this just in the past few weeks.
And what was the second part of it?
Yes, so I guess when I first offered him the job of Chief of Staff, he felt really honored and said I would like to consider it, but if I’m going to return to state service, it’s going to be a big cut in pay and I’ve got to go figure out — he said something to the effect of we get bonuses every year and it’s based on profit and I have to go figure out my finances. I said, okay.
And then at some point he came back and I think let my Chief of Staff, Matt Clark, know that he was ready to take the job but I knew nothing about the details of what his discussions were with his current employer or the board members of MES, whether they accepted it or approve it or know anything about the amount of it or anything.
But he accepted the job. He worked for us for about 60 days in that capacity. I guess about 3 weeks ago the Governor’s council called me to say, hey, we heard some concerning news about some questions about things at MES and gave me a little bit of the detail. And I was concerned when I heard some of it. We heard a lot more just in the last few days. But about this severance and a year’s salary. And I called him in and said, what’s this all about.
He said to me very much the same thing he said in his letter to you and The Baltimore Sun, it’s normal practice that every director that has ever left there gets a year severance. A guy there for a year got it. The previous guy got it. The previous one. They do this all the time. And I was like, wow. I had no idea.
The legislature does an audit of this group every year, and a private contractor does. But we do not. I had no idea about any of it.
And then just recently in the last few days, I’ve heard a whole lot more concerning news. But as soon as we heard these details, we addressed it with him, and as soon as further concerning things came out, he resigned immediately, first day we addressed it with him. Within 20 minutes he resigned. I knew nothing about it.
(Question off mic).
We were just trying to gather more information. You know, we asked them what was this about, and he said this is what happened, the board granted this to me and it is what I was entitled to. I guess he maybe reached out to maybe the council to dig into a little more, talking with members of the board, the compensation committee, how does this happen, what is it about, is it normal practice. And maybe talked with the current director over there and asked them to dig into a little more.
(Question off mic).
Well, his initial explanation was yeah, this is what they offered me.
I was like, wow. I didn’t know anything about it.
(Question off mic).
Hopefully we’re not in the middle of a pandemic but getting near the end of the pandemic. Like I said, we are down to 3%. We have some kids back in classrooms already back this summer when we were much, much higher than we are now. I’m ready to get more kids back in right now. I don’t really want to wait until second quarter. But yes, we are very concerned about the flu season, and that’s something that our entire — look, I really have focused 90% of my time on coronavirus for 5 months and we’re continuing to do so. We’re very concerned about continuing to make sure that we continue this progress on the economic progress, on the virus progress. We’re not just saying open all the schools. But we also don’t want to say keep the schools closed and don’t let any of the kids get any in-person learning.
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Yes. First of all, my heart goes out to every single one of the people who are unemployed. We have now paid out $6.1 billion to unemployed Marylanders. It’s just unprecedented. I think it’s like 586,000 people that we’ve been able to help process and get unemployment checks to out to. We’ve processed more than 96% of them. So we’re down to 4% in process, which is less than normal. In normal times when we have 3% unemployment, despite the unbelievable value.
There was a little — so it’s amazing that we’re down to 4%. You’re right, be there were some people caught up in that massive broad exam. It was a half a billion dollars. 48,000 fraudulent claims. It’s still an ongoing federal investigation. That by law required us to slow down to check not through a computer, not through, you know, each one of those things very carefully. Those people were caught up. Let me finish. So we’ve resolved 75% of them so far of the remaining ones. And 40% of those were also fraudulent. So nearly half of the people who say I haven’t gotten my check yet are also fraud.
The remaining little slice — I don’t know the exact number because there’s 4% in process so it changes like every hour. But hopefully we’re trying to make sure we get everybody paid, but many people are not going to get paid. They either don’t qualify or they say they’ve been unemployed but their employer says they offered them to come back or there’s things like they’re smudging social security numbers and it turns out to be on purpose fraudulently. They don’t have the documents required by federal law. So we’re way better than before the pandemic and better than almost any state in America, but it’s sad if we can’t get one person help. So if you find someone, I know this is a very important case for you. If you find someone who says, I haven’t gotten my check, please, let us know. We’ll reach out to them and say, let’s figure out your problem. But 40% of them are fraudulent and the other ones, maybe some of them aren’t ever going to get paid.
(Question off mic).
Let me say two things. You’re making the false assumption that I pay attention to these things, because I couldn’t care less about those conventions. That’s number one.
Number two, it’s not just a political issue. Governor Cuomo, who just replaced me as the chairman of the NGA, said exactly what I said. Every single school system in New York is able to open and should open. And most of their counties and their teachers’ union said no. Exactly the same. He is a liberal democrat, national democratic leader.
Governor Murphy from New Jersey, also a liberal democrat, signed an executive order saying what I said today. Every New Jersey county can open. Counties still have the authority in both cases. New York and New Jersey in exact same position as us. The county school boards get to make the decision. But both of those governors, democrat, said exactly what I said: They should open, we want the kids back, and they’re allowed to open. Exactly the same thing. There’s no politics. It’s not republican or democrat. It’s about whether you want parents and kids to get in-person instruction. I think it’s a very bipartisan issue.
Thank you.
Back on March 12, Maryland and Ohio became the first states in the nation to close public schools statewide in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It was one of the early and aggressive actions we took to keep Marylanders — especially our children — safe, stop the spread of the virus, and to save lives.
With our safe, effective, and gradual reopening plan, the development of the robust contact tracing operation, our successful long-term testing strategy, and most importantly, with the vigilance of the people of Maryland, our mitigation efforts have been extremely successful. Our mitigation efforts, our health metrics are doing much better than most of the rest of the country.
Our statewide positivity rate is down to 3.3%. A decline of more than 87% since it peaked at 26.91% 132 days ago on April 17th.
The World Health Organization and the CDC recommend that positivity rates should remain at or below 5% for at least 14 consecutive days before moving forward with further actions to reopen.
As of today, Maryland’s positivity rate has been under 5% for 63 consecutive days, since June 25th. It has been under 4% for 19 consecutive days, since August 8th.
We have seen dramatic improvements in the positivity rates of every single one of our most populous jurisdictions in the state. And last week, for the first time, the COVID-19 positivity rate for all 24 jurisdictions in Maryland fell below the 5% milestone. 17 of our 24 jurisdictions now have positivity rates below 3.5%.
Over the last month or more, state health officials have focused on addressing the rising infection rates we had among young people. I’m happy to report that we have made dramatic improvements in that area as well. The gap in the positivity rates among Marylanders under 35 and Marylanders age 35 and older has narrowed significantly. Positivity rate among Marylanders under 35 has declined by 44% since July 23rd and has now fallen below 4% to 3.79%.
Positivity rate among Marylanders 35 and older has dropped below 3% and is now at 2.97%.
Hospitalizations have decreased by nearly 76% since they peaked 117 days ago at 1,711, and just in the last month alone, we have seen a nearly 32% decline in ICU levels.
We’re also seeing a continued and sustained drop in the cases per 100,000, which is an additional metric now being utilized by Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and the coronavirus task force. To our safe, effective, and phased reopening plan, not only have we done better on our health metrics than the nation and most other states, but we’re also doing much better on our economic recovery than the nation and most of the other states across the country. The state of Maryland has now added and regained 156,200 jobs in 90 days. Our unemployment rate has dropped to 7.6%, which while higher than the pandemic is more than 25% better than the national unemployment rate, and it is the very best of all the states in our region.
This week we saw the very lowest number of unemployment claims since the first week of the pandemic in early March. Unlike many other states that have experienced spikes of the virus and increasing rates of infection and who have had to take action to reshut down their economies, we have done none of those things. We were able to keep more than 70% of our economy open throughout the entire crisis, and we have had more than 98% of our economy open since we completed all phase 2 reopenings 70 days ago on June 19th. Maryland truly is open for business. Our Maryland economy is getting back on track and making a steady recovery.
But in order for us to keep moving forward and to keep making progress, it is absolutely critical that we begin the process of getting our children safely and gradually back into the classrooms. I believe very strongly that every single child in Maryland deserves access to a world class education, regardless of what neighborhood they happen to grow up in, and that is true now more than ever before. We have been taking steps to help those students most affected by COVID-19. Our administration has committed $345 million more for our kids in additional education funding through the federal CARES Act for K-12 technology funding, competitive innovation grants to address academic accessibility, remote learning enhancements, tutoring, and learning programs for at-risk students and expanded broadband access for education.
We continue to find innovative ways to maximize resources, to provide critical funding for those students and communities that need help the most. But there is broad and overwhelming agreement among public health leaders, education experts, and parents that finding a way to begin safely returning children to classrooms must be a top priority. I want to sincerely thank all of the parents, childcare providers, teachers, and staff for their hard work to adapt to very difficult circumstances in recent months in order to keep our children and students healthy and learning during this very difficult and unprecedented time. But now nearly everyone agrees that there is no substitute for in-person instruction. Every single day I hear from parents all across the state who are extremely frustrated with the fact that even though our health metrics statewide and in every single county look great and are continuing to dramatically improve, some of the county school boards have not even attempted to develop any safe reopening plans which would bring any kids back for any form of in-person instruction. This is simply not acceptable. It is essential that we all work together on flexible hybrid plans to safely get some of our kids back into classrooms and into healthy and supportive learning environments.
Today I am announcing that as a result of our improved health metrics, every single county school system in the state of Maryland is now fully authorized to begin safely reopening. Since publishing their recovery plan for education back in May, Dr. Salmon and the Maryland State Department of Education have met with county boards of education, local school superintendents, teachers, parents, and other key stakeholders to assist their collaboration on safe and effective recovery plans for our Maryland public schools. County school boards were required to submit their final plans to State Department of Education by August 14th. Dr. Salmon and the State Department of Education have spent the past few weeks carefully reviewing all of those proposed plans.
The good news is that the majority of our counties, 16 county school systems, have developed plans which include returning children to the schools for some form of in-person instruction this fall, including students with special needs.
However, 8 jurisdictions did not submit any reopening plans that attempt to bring any kids back into the classrooms this calendar year. All of our key metrics have dramatically improved, and since they’ve all dramatically improved, since some of these counties made their original quick decisions on mass closures. So let me be clear: The State Department of Education and the Maryland Department of Health believe that all county school systems are able to begin safely reopening. Of course, the authority and decision making on those safe reopenings continues to rest with those county boards of education, but their decisions should and must be based on a new set of statewide metrics, guidelines, and benchmarks that are being announced today which have been established by the Maryland Department of Health, in collaboration with the Maryland State Department of Education. Perhaps it was easier for a local school board to simply say they weren’t going to open or develop plans to safely reopen or to bring any children back in for any in-classroom instruction for the rest of the calendar year, but that is not acceptable. It is not in line with our health metrics or with state policy, and it is not the right thing for our Maryland children.
The hard work lies in developing the safe reopening plans, hybrid systems, and collaborative solutions to find ways to bring more kids back in, for at least some in-person instruction.
The State Department of Education has asked county school boards to do what other aspects of government have already done and what the private sector, including daycares, nursing homes, small businesses, retail shops, restaurants, and churches and houses of worship have done and been doing for months to develop safe and phased reopening plans that can help us begin to put some sense of normalcy back into the lives of our students, parents, and teachers while at the same time working diligently to keep them safe.
This global pandemic has been an extremely difficult time for nearly everyone across our state and our country. But it has been perhaps most difficult for our children. And I want to take a moment to assure our youngest Marylanders and their parents and grandparents that we do all care about you, that we are all working hard for you, that we are all in this together, and that we will get through this together.
Now, in just a few minutes, state superintendent of schools, Dr. Karen Salmon, will provide more detail on the status of MSDE’s plans for the reopening of schools in Maryland, but first I would like to turn it over to Dr. Jinlene Chan, acting Deputy Secretary for public health at the Maryland Department of Health, to discuss the new metrics, these new state health guidelines and protocols for local school boards, which were developed by the Maryland Department of Health, following CDC guidance and standards, and in consultation with county health officers and the Maryland State Department of Education, which are the building blocks for getting our kids safely back into the classrooms.
Dr. Chan?
JINLENE CHAN: Thank you, Governor.
So as Governor Hogan said, over the last few months, our department has been carefully looking at available guidance from CDC and also the guidance from our academic institutions, reviewed metrics and thresholds that are being used by other states, that have been developed so that we can develop our own metrics and guidance. We have, as was mentioned, worked very closely with our partners at MSDE. We have consulted with our local health officers. And also our own public health professionals within the Maryland Department of Health.
The metrics that were selected are in line with what many states are already using and also what many of you may already be familiar with. And across the state, we are now at levels that we believe can allow all schools to move forward with some level of in-person learning. Really over the summer we have seen hospitalizations decline and we have seen our positivity rates decline, and as was mentioned last week, all jurisdictions came below 5% positivity for the first time.
So I wanted to briefly talk through the metrics and the guidance that we are putting forth today for all school systems and schools. I want to first emphasize that this guidance should not strip decision making to move forward. It is not prescriptive, and flexibility is provided for schools to decide how to make decisions in order to best meet the educational needs of their students along with taking into account what the needs of their staff are and in accordance with the CDC guidance and the MDH guidance, and they need to be able to implement those safely.
The metrics that we’ll be using include test positivity. So what this reflects is both the number of tests done across the state as well as the level of community spread, and in conjunction, have to consider also the cases per 100,000 population, or case rates. What this metric shows is the level of community spread, but it’s adjusted for the population size in any particular jurisdiction. So in terms of what the decision tree or the algorithm is, first we would like at test positivity in the jurisdiction and whether or not it is above or below 5% over a 7-day period. Then we would look at the 7-day average for the case rates. Again, this is cases per 100,000 population for that jurisdiction.
Jurisdictions that are both below 5% test positivity and 5 cases per 100,000 should have the ability to hold in-person instruction as long as all recommended guidance on physical distancing, mask use, and other measures are able to be put in place.
Jurisdictions with higher case rates should be able to put in place some sort of hybrid model of education with some partial in-person instruction. As the Governor announced, as of today, by these metrics, all jurisdictions across the state of Maryland could open for some level of in-person instruction. As they do look at the opportunities to do so, for any in-person gatherings that schools have with students or staff, they must be able to follow all of the CDC and the MDH guidance, and especially in relation to maintaining physical distancing between people of 6 feet or greater, wearing a face covering at all times while on school grounds or in school buildings, as well as in school-provided transportation. Exclusion of staff or students who are positive for COVID-19 or who exhibit symptoms of COVID-like illness. And cleaning and disinfection measures. Those are all some of the critical components that schools must take into account before they’re able to open for that in-person instruction.
We know the impact of school closures on families and particularly students’ educational needs and emotional well-being. I have three kids of my own. All three will be going into school this year. And I know some of the struggles that families faced when schools closed over the spring and recognize the challenges that families have. But we also recognize that it is imperative to protect kids and school staff to the greatest extent possible from the risk of COVID-19 infection while in school setting.
And so that is the balance that we have been trying to strike with our guidance and with the metrics that were selected and the thresholds, and we believe that the guidance provides a balanced approach for schools to be able to follow to reopen in a safe manner.
So thank you, and I would like to introduce Dr. Karen Salmon from the Maryland State Department of Education for her remarks.
KAREN SALMON: Thank you, Dr. Chan, and thank you, Governor.
Ensuring that our children return to school safely as we continue to confront this pandemic is one of the greatest challenges facing our nation. It’s impossible to ignore the impact that not having students in the classroom is having on every area of daily life. It is our responsibility as a society and as a state to make sure that school buildings reopen safely for in-person instruction as soon as possible.
Earlier this week the state Board of Education reviewed the reopening plans of all 24 local school systems for the upcoming school year and will be continuing to evaluate the implementation of each plan in the coming weeks. Next week the state board will discuss my recommendation on the minimum number of hours of real-time, face-to-face instruction that systems must provide the students during this initial period of virtual learning. I believe that every child deserves to have a high-quality education every day of the school year. That means 5 days a week and 6 hours a day. I believe that during this time of virtual learning, at least 3 and a half hours daily of that time should be guided synchronously by a teacher. Setting this standard is the only way to assure an equitable education for all children across our state. I’ve heard loud and clear from parents across the state that what occurred this past spring is not acceptable and we can’t allow that to happen again. Parents of our at-risk children and our children with special needs have been especially consistent with their needs of more direct instruction. As the Governor mentioned, our COVID numbers have improved considerably. Today, in light of those improving numbers and with these specific metrics provided by the Department of Health, I am strongly encouraging local school systems to reevaluate their mode of instruction by the end of the first quarter of the upcoming school year, especially if they have indicated that they are maintaining a virtual delivery system until January of 2021. Given the metrics provided by the State Department, schools in the lowest risk jurisdiction should be able to resume some form of in-person instruction for pre-K through high school students with proper social distancing, hygiene measures, facial coverings, and other mitigation practices in place. While adherence to these metrics for reentry into classrooms are not considered requirements, I am strongly encouraging the local school systems to utilize our improving numbers and the provided metrics as a driving force for the decision to return to school buildings. At this point, as the Governor said, 16 school systems have already announced their intentions to begin small group instructions at various points in the fall. Many school systems have demonstrated tremendous leadership and initiative by bringing small groups of students back in a safe environment in counties like Calvert and Worcester over the summer, showing how small group instruction can be provided during the pandemic. We saw photos of desks at a distance, masks being worn by students, outdoor breaks for students from mask wearing, and limited capacity in the classroom.
The state stands ready to assist school systems that make the decision to bring students back in person and have $10 million in grant funding to be available for systems who are able to move towards in-person instruction at the end of the first marking period.
Health and safety precautions must remain in place once we begin to bring students back into the schools, and school systems should continue to work in conjunction with local health officials to monitor the trends and metrics and any outbreaks in the area schools.
As it relates to the immediate situation regarding schools and childcare, every local school system at this point had made the decision to begin the year virtually. This is understandably causing additional immediate need for available childcare. Currently more than 77% of childcare providers across the state have reopened their facilities at this time, and assisting in that reopening while expediting the licensing process for providers is one of the State Department of Education’s primary goals right now. We receive countless requests to raise the capacity restrictions on childcare programs and expand the number of children eligible to attend the beginning of this school year. However, it would be ill logical to deny children the opportunity to return to the classroom only to increase the number of children congregating in another location, essentially serving as a de facto replacement for a school environment. As school systems reconsider their decisions to return to in-person instruction, we will also continue to reassess whether we can increase the capacity in childcare classrooms. The Governor and I will be traveling to different school sites in Maryland in the coming weeks to observe systems that are bringing small groups of students back into a safe and educationally effective environment. I look forward to greeting our students and educators in the coming months, and I wish every one of our over 900,000 student as a healthy, safe, and productive school year.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you very much.
With that, we’ll take some questions.
(Question off mic).
I mean, this is the way our laws work. The locally elected and school boards have the priority to make these decisions. Obviously with some guidance and regulations from the state board of ed. And with the input of the state Health Department. Some ask for more guidance and more metrics, which we’ve provided today, but we’re not going to order them to go back and open schools. But we’re going to go back to them and strongly suggest that since the numbers have dramatically improved since many of them made these decisions or started to work on their plan, that we provide incentives, as Dr. Salmon said, people working toward getting kids back in class for some instruction.
(Question off mic).
I don’t want to speculate on motivations. I think it’s different in different areas. I’m sure a big part of this is their motivation is to want to keep kids safe. As I mentioned in my remarks, I simply think it’s easier to say we’re not going to bring any kids back for the rest of the year as opposed to sitting down and doing the hard work of trying to figure out how could we get kids back in for safe instruction. It’s just a lot of hard work. And we’re going to ask them to go back and do some more of that hard work. School systems are involved in bringing back kids for some in-class instruction, which we think is terrific. But 8 of them just said we’re not even going to consider it. To me and I think to all of us, it doesn’t make any sense. We’re going to ask them to go back and reconsider. But also, the numbers have gotten dramatically better than they were as they were going through some of these decisions a month or two or three ago.
(Question off mic).
We don’t want to, like I remember the President saying he was going to order all schools to reopen. We don’t have the authority to tell the school systems what they must do. They have that authority. But we are giving them metrics which they asked for. We are providing incentives, financial incentives, for them to get open. And we’re all saying, you have the authority to now start to open. And I think we’re going to go back and put pressure on them to say, we want you to go back and take a look at your plans. It’s not acceptable to say you’re going to shut for the rest of the year. Dr. Salmon said they’ve gone back to the drawing board at least by the end of the first quarter, so half of this year they’ll get people back in. So we’re going to do what we can within the law, but we’re not going to change the state law to take away the authority of the local school boards.
(Question off mic).
I would ask Dr. Chan to address those. The Health Department, I’m not sure who the doctor is at Hopkins, but the Health Department has given a great deal of thought to that.
JINLENE CHAN: Thank you for that question. That’s really critically important.
So the metrics that we laid out are very general guidance for school systems and schools to be able to make some decisions. However, if there are instances where there is a case or an outbreak, then that would be part of the partnership and discussion with the local health officer to make decisions on whether or not there may need to be additional mitigation measures or if, in fact, if it is more widespread, whether a classroom may need to be shut down or in certain circumstances that particular individual school. And so those will be taken on a case-by-case basis as we identify outbreaks or as we identify cases. That will be a discussion for local Health Departments.
(Question off mic).
Right. So that is part of the — it’s also about how many people might be impacted. And so if there is a case where there’s a number of different folks who may need to be quarantined, for example, it’s hard to give specific guidance to say, yes, if there’s X number of cases, we shall do this. Every circumstance is unique and every school is unique. And so we would certainly look at the situation to identify how widespread the potential contact might be to determine what the most effective measures to mitigate would be.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I think that certainly we ought to take into consideration the thoughts and the concerns of the teachers union and all of the teachers, whether they’re part of a union or not, but they need to take into account these duly elected boards of education. They need to listen to parents and other stakeholders, and not just listen to one particular interest group and make decisions. I think they need to hold additional public hearings and go back to the drawing board.
Frankly, I think the question earlier was could we somehow change the law to order local boards what to do. That’s not going to happen. But I think what we’re seeing in a number of other states, and we probably could see here, is communities and parents and taxpayers are going to their local board, who has the authorities, and pushing back against the union and saying, we want you to get our kids back into the classrooms. So that’s really where the impact is.
(Question off mic).
Some are.
(Question off mic).
So my desire would be to try to get as many kids back into as many classrooms as we can in a safe way. But I also, you know, I’m not going to dictate what those — I’m not the one who has that responsibility. It’s for these two very smart women and the entire departments that they run, together with the local school boards and the local health officers. And I think they have put a lot of thought into this. And now we’re asking some of the duly elected school board members to go back and put a little more thought into it as well.
(Question off mic).
Yes, please. She’s much smarter than me.
KAREN SALMON: Not true. The Governor has several honorary doctorate degrees.
Yes, sir.
(Question off mic).
I think really, people have been asking for more definitive metrics for hoping schools, and so that’s what Dr. Chan and I and our departments have been working on over the last couple of weeks to get these out. And I think these will provide systems with a little more confidence that they can open and move forward, and maybe and hopefully that they can maybe not make decisions for a whole, you know, half of the school year. That’s 90 days. That’s a long time to have virtual instruction when we know that virtual instruction is very difficult for parents, very difficult for children, especially young children, especially children who have disabilities or children who do not have English as their first language.
So we’re hopeful that they will reevaluate based on these metrics and feel more confident about reopening.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: On that topic, by the way, Prince George’s and a number of the larger jurisdictions, following up with Brad’s question about the teachers’ union, they made really quick and early decisions, but the deadline was August 14th. The 24 jurisdictions just turned them in. They just spent less than 2 weeks of reviewing those plans and looking at those. That doesn’t mean PG County made the right decision. At the time, they were well over 5% infection rate and rising. Now they’re well under 5% and declining. So they should go back and reconsider.
(Question off mic).
Yeah, sure. I guess the reason why we thought it was a good choice is 3 years ago he worked for us. He left the state to go to MES. He was the public works administrator, and our deputy Chief of Staff for about a year and a half and did a good job for us.
He had come in and helped us out during the pandemic and done some good work. And we thought he would be a good choice.
Not aware of any of these current issues that we’re now hearing about. MES is a strange creature, not really under our purview. I don’t know much about what goes on over there. But we haven’t heard a single complaint ever in 3 years until all of this just in the past few weeks.
And what was the second part of it?
Yes, so I guess when I first offered him the job of Chief of Staff, he felt really honored and said I would like to consider it, but if I’m going to return to state service, it’s going to be a big cut in pay and I’ve got to go figure out — he said something to the effect of we get bonuses every year and it’s based on profit and I have to go figure out my finances. I said, okay.
And then at some point he came back and I think let my Chief of Staff, Matt Clark, know that he was ready to take the job but I knew nothing about the details of what his discussions were with his current employer or the board members of MES, whether they accepted it or approve it or know anything about the amount of it or anything.
But he accepted the job. He worked for us for about 60 days in that capacity. I guess about 3 weeks ago the Governor’s council called me to say, hey, we heard some concerning news about some questions about things at MES and gave me a little bit of the detail. And I was concerned when I heard some of it. We heard a lot more just in the last few days. But about this severance and a year’s salary. And I called him in and said, what’s this all about.
He said to me very much the same thing he said in his letter to you and The Baltimore Sun, it’s normal practice that every director that has ever left there gets a year severance. A guy there for a year got it. The previous guy got it. The previous one. They do this all the time. And I was like, wow. I had no idea.
The legislature does an audit of this group every year, and a private contractor does. But we do not. I had no idea about any of it.
And then just recently in the last few days, I’ve heard a whole lot more concerning news. But as soon as we heard these details, we addressed it with him, and as soon as further concerning things came out, he resigned immediately, first day we addressed it with him. Within 20 minutes he resigned. I knew nothing about it.
(Question off mic).
We were just trying to gather more information. You know, we asked them what was this about, and he said this is what happened, the board granted this to me and it is what I was entitled to. I guess he maybe reached out to maybe the council to dig into a little more, talking with members of the board, the compensation committee, how does this happen, what is it about, is it normal practice. And maybe talked with the current director over there and asked them to dig into a little more.
(Question off mic).
Well, his initial explanation was yeah, this is what they offered me.
I was like, wow. I didn’t know anything about it.
(Question off mic).
Hopefully we’re not in the middle of a pandemic but getting near the end of the pandemic. Like I said, we are down to 3%. We have some kids back in classrooms already back this summer when we were much, much higher than we are now. I’m ready to get more kids back in right now. I don’t really want to wait until second quarter. But yes, we are very concerned about the flu season, and that’s something that our entire — look, I really have focused 90% of my time on coronavirus for 5 months and we’re continuing to do so. We’re very concerned about continuing to make sure that we continue this progress on the economic progress, on the virus progress. We’re not just saying open all the schools. But we also don’t want to say keep the schools closed and don’t let any of the kids get any in-person learning.
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Yes. First of all, my heart goes out to every single one of the people who are unemployed. We have now paid out $6.1 billion to unemployed Marylanders. It’s just unprecedented. I think it’s like 586,000 people that we’ve been able to help process and get unemployment checks to out to. We’ve processed more than 96% of them. So we’re down to 4% in process, which is less than normal. In normal times when we have 3% unemployment, despite the unbelievable value.
There was a little — so it’s amazing that we’re down to 4%. You’re right, be there were some people caught up in that massive broad exam. It was a half a billion dollars. 48,000 fraudulent claims. It’s still an ongoing federal investigation. That by law required us to slow down to check not through a computer, not through, you know, each one of those things very carefully. Those people were caught up. Let me finish. So we’ve resolved 75% of them so far of the remaining ones. And 40% of those were also fraudulent. So nearly half of the people who say I haven’t gotten my check yet are also fraud.
The remaining little slice — I don’t know the exact number because there’s 4% in process so it changes like every hour. But hopefully we’re trying to make sure we get everybody paid, but many people are not going to get paid. They either don’t qualify or they say they’ve been unemployed but their employer says they offered them to come back or there’s things like they’re smudging social security numbers and it turns out to be on purpose fraudulently. They don’t have the documents required by federal law. So we’re way better than before the pandemic and better than almost any state in America, but it’s sad if we can’t get one person help. So if you find someone, I know this is a very important case for you. If you find someone who says, I haven’t gotten my check, please, let us know. We’ll reach out to them and say, let’s figure out your problem. But 40% of them are fraudulent and the other ones, maybe some of them aren’t ever going to get paid.
(Question off mic).
Let me say two things. You’re making the false assumption that I pay attention to these things, because I couldn’t care less about those conventions. That’s number one.
Number two, it’s not just a political issue. Governor Cuomo, who just replaced me as the chairman of the NGA, said exactly what I said. Every single school system in New York is able to open and should open. And most of their counties and their teachers’ union said no. Exactly the same. He is a liberal democrat, national democratic leader.
Governor Murphy from New Jersey, also a liberal democrat, signed an executive order saying what I said today. Every New Jersey county can open. Counties still have the authority in both cases. New York and New Jersey in exact same position as us. The county school boards get to make the decision. But both of those governors, democrat, said exactly what I said: They should open, we want the kids back, and they’re allowed to open. Exactly the same thing. There’s no politics. It’s not republican or democrat. It’s about whether you want parents and kids to get in-person instruction. I think it’s a very bipartisan issue.
Thank you.