GOVERNOR HOGAN: Good evening. 139 days ago, we confirmed the first cases of coronavirus in our state, and I immediately declared a state of emergency here in Maryland. The first Marylander died from the coronavirus 125 days ago. We reached the peak of the pandemic here in Maryland 96 days ago on April 17.
68 days ago we were able to lift our stay-at-home order, and 49 days ago we moved into stage 2 of our safe, effective, and gradual reopening of our Maryland Roadmap to Recovery plan.
Our reopening has gone well, and our key positivity metrics continue to remain low and stable.
However, other states across the nation and throughout our region have seen troubling spikes in their infection rates. Arizona now has a positivity rate of 24%. The positivity rate in Nevada is 20%. Florida, Idaho, and Alabama have positivity rates at 18%, and the national positivity rate has nearly doubled over the past 6 weeks.
Fortunately, thanks to our early and aggressive actions, and the vigilance of the people of Maryland, our positivity rate has continued to decline. Our statewide positivity rate is now down to 4.49%. A decline of nearly 83% since it peaked at 26.91% 96 days ago on April 17. And we have seen dramatic improvements in the positivity rates of most of the most populous jurisdictions in the state. In AA County the positivity rate is now at 4.12%, which is more than an 85% drop from their peak of 28.2% on April 16. Baltimore County is at 5.72%, down 66% from their high of 16.98% on April 20. In Baltimore City, the positivity rate is down nearly 77%, from a high of 27.38 on April 19 to 6.33% today. Montgomery County has dropped by 90% from a high of 32.64 on April 20 to only 3.27% today. PG County is down to 5.85%, a decline of 86% from a high of 41.96% on May 2. And in Howard County, the positivity rate has dropped by more than 85% from a high of 28.11% on April 29 to only 4.04% today.
As part of our cautious and science-driven approach, there are a few concerning trends that we are closely monitoring. As we have stated repeatedly over the past few weeks, we’re concerned that the positivity rate among Marylanders under 35 is higher than the positivity rate for Marylanders 35 and older. Positivity rate for Marylanders 35 and older peaked on April 17 at 29%, and is down 88% all the way down to now being only 3.5%. Positivity rate for Marylanders under 35 also peaked quite a while ago, on May 5, at 24.4%, and it has also dropped significantly by 73%, but not as fast. And has recently seen a slight uptick in the wrong direction. We hit a low of 6.1% among that age group a little while ago, a few days ago or last week I guess, and is now up to 6.57%. And the gap between younger and older Marylanders is as big as it’s ever been, a gap between 3.5% and 6.57%.
11,997 Marylanders have been hospitalized for COVID-19 during this pandemic. And we also are concerned that we’ve seen a slight uptick in COVID hospitalizations in recent days. The total hospitalizations statewide as of today is 505, which is slightly up. But keep in mind that they are still down 70% from their peak of 1,711 which occurred 83 days ago on April 30. According to the data, some of this is younger patients who fortunately are not as sick as those older, more vulnerable, more serious cases that we were dealing with in the spring, many of whom were coming from nursing homes. It may be the reason why the number of patients in ICU in Maryland continues to be low and stable. The current number of ICU beds in use is 137, which is a 78% drop from our peak 73 days ago when we had 611.
Thanks to our efforts to increase surge capacity by an additional 6,000 beds, a goal that we exceeded ahead of schedule, we remain prepared and well positioned for any potential future spiking.
As we’ve said from the beginning of this, repeatedly, as we test more, we should expect to see the gross number of cases increase. Today we surpassed 1 million tests in Maryland. We’re consistently reporting 20,000 or more tests every day, and as of today, 20 of Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions have met the goal of testing at least 10% of their populations.
Fortunately, as I mentioned, our statewide positivity rate has remained low and stable, and is below the 5% goal recommended by the CDC.
We are concerned about the shortages and delays in testing that many states across the country are experiencing, and we’re concerned that the administration in Washington is now attempting to actually cut federal funding for testing at a time when it is so critically important to our ability to get a handle on and to stop this virus.
Today I led my 46th call just in the past few months with my fellow governors on the need for Congress to act quickly on additional relief for the states, and I was joined by my National Governors Association vice chair, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in putting out a bipartisan statement urging the Senate to approve state stabilization funding in the next COVID-19 relief bill.
The recent dramatic spikes and the rise in infection rates in other states has significantly increased the national demand for testing and has caused delays of up to 10 days or more at commercial labs across the country. It is slowing testing results even for us here in Maryland. We currently have more than 220 testing sites available statewide. We’ve so far surpassed all of our testing goals. But many of them are seeing substantial delays, in some cases up to a week to 10 days from some of these overwhelmed commercial labs across the country, so it is starting to impact us here.
But luckily we have a contingency plan. 89 days ago when there was very limited testing anywhere in America, I announced the unprecedented action that we have taken to acquire a half million LabGun COVID-19 PCR test kits from LabGenomics in South Korea. These high-quality test kits continue to be the centerpiece of our long-term testing strategy. We’ve utilized tens of thousands of these tests on our high priority hotspots and outbreaks, including our effort to fight the virus in nursing homes and our poultry plants and whenever we needed fast and accurate results.
Last month, ahead of schedule, we opened our very own signature state lab, which we built at the University of Maryland Baltimore to do our own processing of these tests. It is now staffed up and fully operational, enabling us to ramp up even more of our own in-house testing but utilizing specialized Korean machinery and cutting-edge robotics.
Unlike many of the commercial labs which are experiencing these serious delays, we are able to turn around these highly sensitive Korean tests at our new lab in 24-48 hours.
So we are currently utilizing a couple thousand of these tests a day on those most important priority cases that need fast results. At our current pace, we are good to have a supply through November. However, because of the outbreaks in other states and the shortages and delays in other testing, unfortunately it may require us to utilize our strategic stockpile twice as fast as we had originally anticipated. In that event, we are prepared to acquire whatever additional LabGenomics tests are needed in order to get us through the flu season and any outbreaks or spikes that we could still be facing in the fall, the winter, and even into 2021.
Testing and contact tracing are keys to stopping the spread of this virus, and our state’s expanded contact tracing operation has increased by 440% since we launched in April. From June 11 to July 18, our contact tracers consistently conducted outreach to more than 80% of confirmed COVID-19 cases within 24 hours of the case being entered into COVID Link, Maryland’s state of the art data management platform. Contact tracers have been successful in reaching 75% of those cases. One of the reasons why that percentage is not higher is because some Marylanders are either not answering the phone, but in some cases, they’re refusing to cooperate or participate in contact tracing efforts. And I just want to say that this is critical to helping identify those who may be infected and to helping us stop the spread. Not cooperating severely limits our ability to identify and contain this deadly virus, so I’m pleading with Marylanders, if you get a call from MD COVID, please cooperate with the investigators so we can help stop the spread.
We’re closely monitoring these spiking numbers in states across our region and to the south and west of our borders. We continue to strongly advise Marylanders to refrain from traveling to areas that are experiencing rapidly escalating positivity. Anyone who does travel to one of these areas should immediately get tested and should immediately self-quarantine until testing negative. Only you can stop the spread of COVID-19.
I want to make very clear to the people of Maryland again that this crisis is not over, and your actions may help determine whether we see a resurgence of the virus in Maryland. You are still safer at home. Lower risk does not mean no risk. Outside is safer than inside. Employers should still continue telework when possible. And individuals who can work from home should continue to do so. We still are advising that Marylanders should not use public transportation unless it’s absolutely necessary. Marylanders should continue to practice social distancing, staying 6 feet apart whenever possible, and all Marylanders, but especially our young people, should be avoiding all large gatherings. Everyone must continue wearing masks in public areas, businesses, and on public transportation. If you do nothing else, this one act alone will help us significantly slow the spread of this virus.
Our economy is open, recovering, and doing better than many other states. This morning we completed another successful bond sale at the Board of Public Works meeting. Incredibly, in the middle of the worst economic crisis in our lifetime, Maryland again received a AAA bond rating from all three rating agencies. Today we sold more than $1 billion in bonds, which means that taxpayers of Maryland saved tens of millions of dollars benefiting from much lower interest rates.
In 60 days we have already gained back nearly 97,000 jobs, and our unemployment rate is nearly 30% lower than the national rate, far better than most states in America, and is the very best in our region. But only you can keep Maryland open for business, by wearing masks and by continuing to follow the public health guidelines. It’s really pretty simple: No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service. It’s really not that hard.
I want to remind Marylanders once again that the Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery plan was based on a flexible community-based approach, which was requested by the county leaders and approved by our coronavirus recovery team. From the beginning of our recovery, we have given local governments the flexibility to take certain actions at their discretion, and we continue to do so.
However, we’re also continuing to press local leaders to actively and aggressively enforce the public health measures that remain in place, especially in the bars and restaurants across their counties. I want to commend Montgomery County for cracking down on a few businesses that were flagrantly violating those health orders. This issue is not a problem with our current regulations that are in place. It’s more a matter of the lack of compliance on the part of a few and the lack of enforcement by those who have that responsibility. Bars and restaurants in Maryland have only ever been permitted to open for seated service only, with strict physical distancing and capacity restrictions. Customers must be seated at least 6 feet apart from other guests, and standing in bar areas is strictly prohibited statewide. As we reiterated to county officials last week, it is their sole responsibility to get their local Health Departments, their local liquor boards and inspectors, and if necessary their local law enforcement agencies to all work together to ensure that residents and businesses in their jurisdictions are complying with these regulations. I want to make it clear: We are monitoring all of these numbers very closely. We continue to be concerned about possible resurgence of the virus, and we’re concerned about what’s happening in other places around the country. As we have from the very beginning of this, we are going to follow the advice of our doctors and our public health experts, and we will not hesitate to take statewide actions if and when we deem them to be necessary.
But with our health metrics currently stable, we do not intend to suddenly close all of our small businesses and put all of those employees out of work because of a lack of enforcement, and we do not want to crush our economy and punish 95% of the Marylanders and the businesses who are doing the right thing because of a failure to control a small segment of willful violators.
On another topic, we’re also concerned about the lack of progress by the state election board. And the lack of preparations for the upcoming election this November. There has been a lot of misinformation and a lot of partisan politics in recent weeks, and I want to take a moment to set the record straight once and for all. On June 2 the state held a primary election that had no early voting, had very few polling places open on election day, and had voting by mail. As our comptroller reiterated again today at the Board of Public Works, it was an unmitigated disaster. There were rampant problems with thousands or tens of thousands of Marylanders either not receiving ballots, receiving ballots late, receiving ballots for the wrong districts, receiving them in the wrong language, or having to wait in hours’ long lines at the handful of polling places that were open on election day.
With all of these problems, the leaders in both parties and the legislature demanded answers, called for investigations, and even called for new leadership at the State Board of Elections.
I immediately demanded a full review of what happened. After more than a month, the State Board of Elections was unable to reach any kind of consensus or come up with any recommended changes in the law for the November election.
Since then the situation has descended into a typical partisan argument, which I think is the last thing that we need right now.
On June 22, the CDC put out guidelines for elections that call for giving voters as many options as possible. We’re trying to take the politics out of all of this, and we’re following the advice of the health experts and existing state law, which was authored by the General Assembly which requires voting on election day, and which requires the polls to be open, which requires early voting, and under existing law, I took it a step further, requiring the state board to immediately mail an absentee ballot application to every single voter in the state, to allow this election to be an all of the above election, with the most choices possible. And we’re encouraging everyone to vote by mail. If you’re unable to vote by mail, by state law, we have eight days of early voting, and we’re encouraging Marylanders to vote early in order to avoid any possible crowds on election day.
And on election day, as the law requires in Maryland, the polls will be open. We cannot have a repeat of the primary where people were unable to cast their vote. They didn’t know that their precincts were closed, where to go. I don’t think you can have anything tougher to suppress the vote than not having the polls open and people not knowing where to go and having 4 hour waits in line as they did during the primary.
As President Obama said just last week, quote, “Everybody should be able to request and absentee ballot.” Unlike in the past, people will not even have to request an application for an absentee ballot here in Maryland. We’re mailing one to every single voter and encouraging everyone to exercise their right to vote in the safest way possible.
Maryland is one of only 14 states in the entire nation to mail ballots or applications to all registered voters. I will be strongly encouraging Marylanders to vote by mail, and I’m calling on the leaders of both parties to stop all the political nonsense and to join me in encouraging people to vote and make sure everyone has the chance to vote on election day whichever way they choose.
Finally today we want to cover an issue that is very important to so many people, and that’s the plans for Maryland’s public schools this fall. As I said last week, I think we would all like to see our children get back to school as soon as possible, but only if and when we can do so in a way that keeps our students and our teachers safe. Since putting out their recovery plan for education back in May, Dr. Karen Salmon, the state superintendent of schools, and the Maryland State Department of Education, has met with the county boards of education, local school superintendents, teachers, parents, and other key stakeholders to collaborate on safe and effective recovery plans for our Maryland public schools. Several counties have already submitted and announced their proposed plans. Other jurisdictions are continuing to work to finalize theirs in order to meet the August 14 deadline. And I know that people are anxious to get these final decisions, but it’s absolutely critical that rather than rushing, that we get this right for our communities, our teachers, and especially for our children in Maryland.
At this time I’m going to turn it over to our superintendent Karen Salmon so she can provide us an update on the progress.
KAREN SALMON: Thank you, Governor Hogan, and also thank you once again for your sustained leadership during this critical time.
Good afternoon. From the beginning, even as we were suddenly closing school buildings to protect our students, teachers, and communities, Weaver always been working towards the goal of safely reopening. As a lifelong educator, I know that every child is born with an inherent greatness, and that the school learning journey helps children fully realize that potential.
What happens in school buildings is an essential part of our children’s development on so many levels: Academic, social emotional, and nutritional. These can never be fully replaced by a virtual environment. We want to get our students back to school as soon as possible for in-person instruction, and this should be the driving goal and the basis for all of our decisions. Public health experts including the American Academy of Pediatrics agree.
However, the imminent safety and health of students’ safety and staff must always be the first priority. In May, in collaboration with stakeholders, we released our Maryland together Maryland’s recovery plan for education, which follows the state’s overall recovery plan and the Governor’s executive orders. Under our blueprint, local systems have until August 14, as the Governor said, to develop and submit education recovery plans for review by the state board.
Today I want to update Marylanders about the protocols and guidelines we expect to institute going forward. In March, it was a public health imperative for the state to close all schools in an immediate emergency phase addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now with the state firmly in recovery, local systems will have the flexibility to determine in consultation with their local Health Departments how they will open and which groups of students and staff will be able to reenter buildings.
Continuing in stage 2 of recovery, just as schools could begin limited in-person summer instruction, schools can choose to reopen for in-person instruction in the fall. Depending on conditions in their locality, school systems may be more restrictive than the requirements outlined in the state recovery plan. Some systems have begun to lay a path to begin the year all virtual, and some plan to move forward with a hybrid approach.
Our job at the State Department is to help systems succeed and keep staff and students safe, regardless of which path they choose. Within the framework of local control, the state will set a series of guardrails for school systems. First, all school systems must follow CDC guidelines for schools, which stress the importance of hand washing, physical distancing, and cloth face coverings, which must be worn by all staff and students, particularly when physical distancing is not possible. We cannot stress this enough.
Second, all school systems must adhere to protocols instituted by state health officials for addressing an outbreak. Remember that an outbreak is defined as at least one laboratory case of COVID-19.
These protocols which we are releasing today stress several elements including communication and ensuring that a process is in place to notify the school community of a positive test and work with the local Health Department to activate contact tracing procedures. Schools will be providing written notification to all identified contacts and how long they should remain in quarantine. The school should follow instructions from the local Health Department for all matters concerning quarantine, exclusion, and return to school for persons with a positive test for COVID-19 and those who have had close contact.
Third, all school systems must meet a series of benchmarks, including incorporation of equity as a component in a local recovery plan, establishing local education recovery stakeholder groups, identifying learning gaps and instructional placement of students, following and maintaining curriculum frameworks, adhering to the components of IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, adopting and following health procedures as outlined by the Maryland State Department, the Maryland Department of Health, and the CDC, including cleaning and sanitation, ensuring safe transportation for all students, developing a system for tracking attendance, and following the Maryland public secondary school sports athletic association guidance for interscholastic activities and athletics.
As we imagine our schools this fall, we are committed to delivering education safely and effectively to each student with educational equity and justice as the cornerstone. This includes a focus on special education, emergency school meal programs to ensure that no child goes hungry, and addressing the persistent digital divide.
I thank the Governor for his commitment in ensuring we maximize the use of federal funding to help these schools and students most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically these funds ensure that more students will have access to remote learning and the expansion of targeted tutoring initiatives for at-risk students. We know that longstanding gaps in educational opportunity and access have been further exposed and widened by COVID-19. Our goal with these resources is to give local school systems the support and flexibility to focus on and prioritize students most impacted during this crisis.
As always, we will be resolute in our approach on equity, providing intense learning opportunities for those who need the most.
To address the digital divide, $100 million is dedicated to equipping students with up-to-date devices and connectivity. Another $100 million is invested in tutoring and learning programs to address learning loss due to a time away from direct instruction and teacher intervention. To enhance broadband access for Maryland students, $10 million is allocated to the Governor’s Office of Rural Broadband, which will construct a wireless education network in western Maryland, southern Maryland, and on the Eastern Shore.
In total, the Governor has now committed 20 million in CARES Act funding to expand rural broadband and an additional 5 million for urban broadband.
With the inclusion of 45 million from the Governor’s emergency education relief fund, we have committed a total of more than $255 million in CARES Act fund for educational priorities. Part of the funding also includes a competitive grant opportunity available on our website under COVID-19 resources.
I fully appreciate the wide range of input that we have received from our stakeholders, educators, parents, and teachers. The reopening of schools is a deeply personal issue. I hear every day from those who passionately demand that schools be fully reopened, as well as those who are adamant in appeals for only virtual learning. In striking a balance and offering local flexibility, we offer an approach that we will hope will lead to more in-person school time.
What happens in the weeks ahead, as the Governor said, is largely dependent upon each of us. Our actions and continued diligence to social distancing, taking all the necessary precautions to keep each other safe, meaning wearing masks, washing hands, and being honest about health assessments. Staying home and quarantining when necessary.
Parents and guardians will be our strongest allies by conducting daily morning temperature checks and providing extra vigilance to help ensure healthy children are boarding school buses and entering school buildings.
As we experienced in the spring, parents will be left at time with the impossible task of coordinating work schedules with virtual learning. It’s been said it takes a village. Again, we need to be reliant on family members, childcare providers, youth centers, and other partners. I’m confident that if we stay on the current track, we can and we will return to normal operations in the coming year.
Again, we will rely on every available resource to ensure that Maryland’s children have full access to the quality effective and safe education that they deserve. The task of educating every child in Maryland is as complex as the world that they face. It requires the combined efforts of parents, students, teachers, administrators, government, business, and stakeholders. Together, we must support, protect, inspire, and empower. We are Maryland Strong, and we will continue moving forward together.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you, Dr. Salmon.
I’ll just point out, I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier, but we also have Dr. Fran Phillips from the Department of Health here standing by in case there are any health questions I can’t answer. Thank you for joining us, Fran.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I think Dr. Salmon just talked about that at length.
KAREN SALMON: So we have nine systems that have made the decision so far to go virtual. Just for clarity, for others who might not have that information, they include AA County, Baltimore City, actually Baltimore City is until October 16th so not a full semester. Baltimore County, Charles, Hartford, Howard, Montgomery, PG, and Washington. And all the other systems are still in the process of making decisions.
A lot of those systems are in the metro area where we do see the higher number of cases.
Again, asking my opinion, as I said to you all a few months ago, I was really hopeful that we would get a number of students back in the summer for some in-person learning because I think it is critical and we did have some counties that did that with excellent results. I was so proud of some of our nonpublic special education schools who also opened, followed all the guidelines, and brought some of our most needy students back that have incredible issues. And I was very happy about that.
(Question off mic).
I think we all struggle with the decisions about what’s the right timing of things. And I think, you know, my hope is that wouldn’t it be great if we have a vaccine and the situation changes and maybe because we were so fast at going out, maybe we can get them back. I’m always hopeful. I am hopeful about many things, and I am hopeful that we can get back to school, as I said, during the school year.
(Question off mic).
so the 100 million for digital is more for devices. We divided it up among all the school systems in terms of a per-pupil allotment. So they can use that for digital devices or for connectivity, to help students that don’t have the connection.
The 100 million for tutoring was for those students that are the furthest behind, meaning hiring extra people to work more one on one with students to bring them back to where they need to be.
And then the other money for the broadband is to really increase what we probably should have done years ago back in I’m talking about 2000, not now. We should have had this connectivity going on, and the Governor has done a great job getting this ratcheted up to where we need to be. So with this broadband increasing in areas where it’s really difficult to connect, I think we’ll see a better result. And learning will be different than it was this spring. In any place it’s virtual, it will be more robust. It will be more synchronous, meaning all the time with a teacher as opposed to not all the time with a teacher. And it will look much different than it did before. We were spending most of the summer doing professional development with teachers on how to teach virtually. We’ve had great enrollment across the state. So I’m anticipating that we’ll see a very different system as we go forward.
SPEAKER: Governor Hogan, have you considered a statewide mask requirement? (Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We were one of the first states in the country to impose mask orders across the state, and we have that in certain retail locations. We don’t have it everywhere. But we’ll take whatever steps as I mentioned we believe are necessary to protect the public health. At this point in time, as I said, all of our key metrics that we’re watching are either declining or flat and I don’t believe we need to take any additional steps.
But as you know, I was one of the first in the country to close the schools. We were one of the first to declare a state of emergency. One of the first to have a stay-at-home order. If we feel, if we start to see the spike up again, I won’t hesitate to take actions that are necessary. But we don’t believe today as we sit here, based on the facts and the data, that that’s necessary.
(Question off mic).
SPEAKER: Is that true? Are you getting everything you need?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I know the President and I have sometimes disagreed. And that’s one thing I’ve been clear about disagreeing.
I hesitate to be overly critical in the middle of a pandemic when we’re all trying to work together at the federal, state, and local level. It’s obviously not the case. We had a call today with 48 governors across America. There are still things we really need. I’ve said that I think they’ve done a good job of ramping up in a number of areas, and we’ve improved on PPE. They did a good job of ramping up the production act and producing ventilators.
We’re starting to again have testing shortages, not having supplies and running out of capacity across the country. It’s looking like it was back in March and April.
So I think there have been some improvements. The federal government is trying to help. They’ve done some great things with the CARES Act funding that we talked about to help the schools and other things, helped some of our unemployed and our small businesses. But we don’t have all the things we need. Every Governor still needs a lot of other things that we’re still fighting for.
(Question off mic).
We’ve been working on this since March, and I mentioned earlier that Governor Cuomo and I put out a joint statement today. On the Governor all, not only the White House call. We had an update on what was going on on the Hill. We just got back from the fourth of July recess. They’re going on recess again in August. So we have just a couple of weeks for them to get something done. We’re still hopeful. We’ve been pushing the White House, the secretary, the Vice President, McConnell. There’s a rift between republicans and democrats. It’s very frustrating. It’s one of the things I talk about a lot is this divisiveness and dysfunction on Capitol Hill. But we have to get something done. There’s not much disagreement by governors. One or two maybe. But almost all of them believe we need additional help for the states. We’ve already, 1.6 million state and local government workers already lost their jobs. We’re trying to provide more services to more people who really need them with a lot less revenue, and we’re on the front lines. So to cut money for testing, to say we’re not going to provide additional help for the states, it can be devastating. And I think it’s the last thing we need.
I guess the short answer is, we’re still hopeful but frustrated. And we’re expressing — we’re still working with all the parties on every side of this, multiple factions, trying to get something done. But we’re not in control of it. Obviously we’re sort of on the sidelines pushing all we can, but we don’t make the final decisions.
(Question off mic).
We’ve been in touch with the folks in Ocean City. I’ve talked with the mayor of Ocean City a number of times. We are concerned. Whisper County has an uptick in infection rates. It’s a small town, a suburb, where all these people come in. Again, we did not open bars the way Delaware did and most other states did where they were fully open with hundreds of people jammed. In our regulations only allow seated, distanced, capacity restricted. Some people were violating those rules and we had discussions with the mayor of Ocean City who did bring together the liquor board, Health Department folks, inspectors, city police, and county sheriffs to try to enforce that. We’ve had great compliance from some business owners that as soon as someone tested positive, they voluntarily closed to keep their employees and customers safe.
But we had some concerns about some people not following the rules. Delaware closed their bars because they were open. Ours are really not supposed to be and we’re keeping a close eye on it. We are concerned about that.
(Question off mic).
It’s a good question, and maybe Dr. Salmon will weigh in. County boards of education have always had this independent authority. The state sets some parameters, but people were not wanting us to interfere with local decisions. County governments have always had individual authority to make the decisions that are more restrictive than what we’ve done. Not less restrictive. They must follow state law. But our plan is always flexible. I know sports is something people are also frustrated. I don’t know, Karen, if there’s anything you want to add. She probably is more up-to-date than I am on that.
KAREN SALMON: I don’t know, Governor, you continue to answer Fran and my questions pretty well.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I’m sure you’ll tell me if I say something wrong.
KAREN SALMON: The Governor is correct. We have our association, and in our Maryland recovery plan, we do have a section on athletics and sports that school systems can put into their recovery plans.
There were some things that, you know, we were able to do virtually. And interestingly enough, you can do some activities virtually with students. And again, we want to try to engage our students in any way that we can safely coming up.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We recently had some discussions with our coronavirus recovery team and some of our doctors who recently we’ve been taking a look at some of those things and we’re watching them very closely. I think positivity rate dropping is the most important thing, and our plan has for us to look at hospitalizations and rate of deaths. It doesn’t envision the things you just mentioned. New York has different metrics they’re looking at, I guess. It’s not something part of the CDC guidelines or part of our plan here in Maryland. Since we’ve been trending in the right direction for 96 days or whatever…
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We’re going to get Fran. Left you out almost.
(Question off mic).
FRAN PHILLIPS: As the Governor said, I think some of the metrics that they’re using are not the ones that are standard, and some of those are not stable metrics. They are not ones that are replicated. So with that said, what I would say to Marylanders is think about where you go. Think about the risk. And I’m not just talking about out-of-state travel. I’m talking about what we do every day. And I guess that’s the takeaway right now. We have the control. We have the ability to further catch this if we take the steps we know: Hand washing, social distancing, masking. And it’s thinking about yourself and your own ability to absorb risk when you make decisions about what you do every day. That includes interstate travel, but certainly it includes other kinds of activities that we’ll need to take a second look at. And I’m not just talking to people in my age group now. You heard data on positivity. You heard that we have more younger people being hospitalized. And some of those people are hospitalized, they’re not in ICUs, but they’re very, very sick. It belies the idea that they’re immune or invincible or invulnerable. It’s decisions we make every day.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you.
68 days ago we were able to lift our stay-at-home order, and 49 days ago we moved into stage 2 of our safe, effective, and gradual reopening of our Maryland Roadmap to Recovery plan.
Our reopening has gone well, and our key positivity metrics continue to remain low and stable.
However, other states across the nation and throughout our region have seen troubling spikes in their infection rates. Arizona now has a positivity rate of 24%. The positivity rate in Nevada is 20%. Florida, Idaho, and Alabama have positivity rates at 18%, and the national positivity rate has nearly doubled over the past 6 weeks.
Fortunately, thanks to our early and aggressive actions, and the vigilance of the people of Maryland, our positivity rate has continued to decline. Our statewide positivity rate is now down to 4.49%. A decline of nearly 83% since it peaked at 26.91% 96 days ago on April 17. And we have seen dramatic improvements in the positivity rates of most of the most populous jurisdictions in the state. In AA County the positivity rate is now at 4.12%, which is more than an 85% drop from their peak of 28.2% on April 16. Baltimore County is at 5.72%, down 66% from their high of 16.98% on April 20. In Baltimore City, the positivity rate is down nearly 77%, from a high of 27.38 on April 19 to 6.33% today. Montgomery County has dropped by 90% from a high of 32.64 on April 20 to only 3.27% today. PG County is down to 5.85%, a decline of 86% from a high of 41.96% on May 2. And in Howard County, the positivity rate has dropped by more than 85% from a high of 28.11% on April 29 to only 4.04% today.
As part of our cautious and science-driven approach, there are a few concerning trends that we are closely monitoring. As we have stated repeatedly over the past few weeks, we’re concerned that the positivity rate among Marylanders under 35 is higher than the positivity rate for Marylanders 35 and older. Positivity rate for Marylanders 35 and older peaked on April 17 at 29%, and is down 88% all the way down to now being only 3.5%. Positivity rate for Marylanders under 35 also peaked quite a while ago, on May 5, at 24.4%, and it has also dropped significantly by 73%, but not as fast. And has recently seen a slight uptick in the wrong direction. We hit a low of 6.1% among that age group a little while ago, a few days ago or last week I guess, and is now up to 6.57%. And the gap between younger and older Marylanders is as big as it’s ever been, a gap between 3.5% and 6.57%.
11,997 Marylanders have been hospitalized for COVID-19 during this pandemic. And we also are concerned that we’ve seen a slight uptick in COVID hospitalizations in recent days. The total hospitalizations statewide as of today is 505, which is slightly up. But keep in mind that they are still down 70% from their peak of 1,711 which occurred 83 days ago on April 30. According to the data, some of this is younger patients who fortunately are not as sick as those older, more vulnerable, more serious cases that we were dealing with in the spring, many of whom were coming from nursing homes. It may be the reason why the number of patients in ICU in Maryland continues to be low and stable. The current number of ICU beds in use is 137, which is a 78% drop from our peak 73 days ago when we had 611.
Thanks to our efforts to increase surge capacity by an additional 6,000 beds, a goal that we exceeded ahead of schedule, we remain prepared and well positioned for any potential future spiking.
As we’ve said from the beginning of this, repeatedly, as we test more, we should expect to see the gross number of cases increase. Today we surpassed 1 million tests in Maryland. We’re consistently reporting 20,000 or more tests every day, and as of today, 20 of Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions have met the goal of testing at least 10% of their populations.
Fortunately, as I mentioned, our statewide positivity rate has remained low and stable, and is below the 5% goal recommended by the CDC.
We are concerned about the shortages and delays in testing that many states across the country are experiencing, and we’re concerned that the administration in Washington is now attempting to actually cut federal funding for testing at a time when it is so critically important to our ability to get a handle on and to stop this virus.
Today I led my 46th call just in the past few months with my fellow governors on the need for Congress to act quickly on additional relief for the states, and I was joined by my National Governors Association vice chair, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in putting out a bipartisan statement urging the Senate to approve state stabilization funding in the next COVID-19 relief bill.
The recent dramatic spikes and the rise in infection rates in other states has significantly increased the national demand for testing and has caused delays of up to 10 days or more at commercial labs across the country. It is slowing testing results even for us here in Maryland. We currently have more than 220 testing sites available statewide. We’ve so far surpassed all of our testing goals. But many of them are seeing substantial delays, in some cases up to a week to 10 days from some of these overwhelmed commercial labs across the country, so it is starting to impact us here.
But luckily we have a contingency plan. 89 days ago when there was very limited testing anywhere in America, I announced the unprecedented action that we have taken to acquire a half million LabGun COVID-19 PCR test kits from LabGenomics in South Korea. These high-quality test kits continue to be the centerpiece of our long-term testing strategy. We’ve utilized tens of thousands of these tests on our high priority hotspots and outbreaks, including our effort to fight the virus in nursing homes and our poultry plants and whenever we needed fast and accurate results.
Last month, ahead of schedule, we opened our very own signature state lab, which we built at the University of Maryland Baltimore to do our own processing of these tests. It is now staffed up and fully operational, enabling us to ramp up even more of our own in-house testing but utilizing specialized Korean machinery and cutting-edge robotics.
Unlike many of the commercial labs which are experiencing these serious delays, we are able to turn around these highly sensitive Korean tests at our new lab in 24-48 hours.
So we are currently utilizing a couple thousand of these tests a day on those most important priority cases that need fast results. At our current pace, we are good to have a supply through November. However, because of the outbreaks in other states and the shortages and delays in other testing, unfortunately it may require us to utilize our strategic stockpile twice as fast as we had originally anticipated. In that event, we are prepared to acquire whatever additional LabGenomics tests are needed in order to get us through the flu season and any outbreaks or spikes that we could still be facing in the fall, the winter, and even into 2021.
Testing and contact tracing are keys to stopping the spread of this virus, and our state’s expanded contact tracing operation has increased by 440% since we launched in April. From June 11 to July 18, our contact tracers consistently conducted outreach to more than 80% of confirmed COVID-19 cases within 24 hours of the case being entered into COVID Link, Maryland’s state of the art data management platform. Contact tracers have been successful in reaching 75% of those cases. One of the reasons why that percentage is not higher is because some Marylanders are either not answering the phone, but in some cases, they’re refusing to cooperate or participate in contact tracing efforts. And I just want to say that this is critical to helping identify those who may be infected and to helping us stop the spread. Not cooperating severely limits our ability to identify and contain this deadly virus, so I’m pleading with Marylanders, if you get a call from MD COVID, please cooperate with the investigators so we can help stop the spread.
We’re closely monitoring these spiking numbers in states across our region and to the south and west of our borders. We continue to strongly advise Marylanders to refrain from traveling to areas that are experiencing rapidly escalating positivity. Anyone who does travel to one of these areas should immediately get tested and should immediately self-quarantine until testing negative. Only you can stop the spread of COVID-19.
I want to make very clear to the people of Maryland again that this crisis is not over, and your actions may help determine whether we see a resurgence of the virus in Maryland. You are still safer at home. Lower risk does not mean no risk. Outside is safer than inside. Employers should still continue telework when possible. And individuals who can work from home should continue to do so. We still are advising that Marylanders should not use public transportation unless it’s absolutely necessary. Marylanders should continue to practice social distancing, staying 6 feet apart whenever possible, and all Marylanders, but especially our young people, should be avoiding all large gatherings. Everyone must continue wearing masks in public areas, businesses, and on public transportation. If you do nothing else, this one act alone will help us significantly slow the spread of this virus.
Our economy is open, recovering, and doing better than many other states. This morning we completed another successful bond sale at the Board of Public Works meeting. Incredibly, in the middle of the worst economic crisis in our lifetime, Maryland again received a AAA bond rating from all three rating agencies. Today we sold more than $1 billion in bonds, which means that taxpayers of Maryland saved tens of millions of dollars benefiting from much lower interest rates.
In 60 days we have already gained back nearly 97,000 jobs, and our unemployment rate is nearly 30% lower than the national rate, far better than most states in America, and is the very best in our region. But only you can keep Maryland open for business, by wearing masks and by continuing to follow the public health guidelines. It’s really pretty simple: No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service. It’s really not that hard.
I want to remind Marylanders once again that the Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery plan was based on a flexible community-based approach, which was requested by the county leaders and approved by our coronavirus recovery team. From the beginning of our recovery, we have given local governments the flexibility to take certain actions at their discretion, and we continue to do so.
However, we’re also continuing to press local leaders to actively and aggressively enforce the public health measures that remain in place, especially in the bars and restaurants across their counties. I want to commend Montgomery County for cracking down on a few businesses that were flagrantly violating those health orders. This issue is not a problem with our current regulations that are in place. It’s more a matter of the lack of compliance on the part of a few and the lack of enforcement by those who have that responsibility. Bars and restaurants in Maryland have only ever been permitted to open for seated service only, with strict physical distancing and capacity restrictions. Customers must be seated at least 6 feet apart from other guests, and standing in bar areas is strictly prohibited statewide. As we reiterated to county officials last week, it is their sole responsibility to get their local Health Departments, their local liquor boards and inspectors, and if necessary their local law enforcement agencies to all work together to ensure that residents and businesses in their jurisdictions are complying with these regulations. I want to make it clear: We are monitoring all of these numbers very closely. We continue to be concerned about possible resurgence of the virus, and we’re concerned about what’s happening in other places around the country. As we have from the very beginning of this, we are going to follow the advice of our doctors and our public health experts, and we will not hesitate to take statewide actions if and when we deem them to be necessary.
But with our health metrics currently stable, we do not intend to suddenly close all of our small businesses and put all of those employees out of work because of a lack of enforcement, and we do not want to crush our economy and punish 95% of the Marylanders and the businesses who are doing the right thing because of a failure to control a small segment of willful violators.
On another topic, we’re also concerned about the lack of progress by the state election board. And the lack of preparations for the upcoming election this November. There has been a lot of misinformation and a lot of partisan politics in recent weeks, and I want to take a moment to set the record straight once and for all. On June 2 the state held a primary election that had no early voting, had very few polling places open on election day, and had voting by mail. As our comptroller reiterated again today at the Board of Public Works, it was an unmitigated disaster. There were rampant problems with thousands or tens of thousands of Marylanders either not receiving ballots, receiving ballots late, receiving ballots for the wrong districts, receiving them in the wrong language, or having to wait in hours’ long lines at the handful of polling places that were open on election day.
With all of these problems, the leaders in both parties and the legislature demanded answers, called for investigations, and even called for new leadership at the State Board of Elections.
I immediately demanded a full review of what happened. After more than a month, the State Board of Elections was unable to reach any kind of consensus or come up with any recommended changes in the law for the November election.
Since then the situation has descended into a typical partisan argument, which I think is the last thing that we need right now.
On June 22, the CDC put out guidelines for elections that call for giving voters as many options as possible. We’re trying to take the politics out of all of this, and we’re following the advice of the health experts and existing state law, which was authored by the General Assembly which requires voting on election day, and which requires the polls to be open, which requires early voting, and under existing law, I took it a step further, requiring the state board to immediately mail an absentee ballot application to every single voter in the state, to allow this election to be an all of the above election, with the most choices possible. And we’re encouraging everyone to vote by mail. If you’re unable to vote by mail, by state law, we have eight days of early voting, and we’re encouraging Marylanders to vote early in order to avoid any possible crowds on election day.
And on election day, as the law requires in Maryland, the polls will be open. We cannot have a repeat of the primary where people were unable to cast their vote. They didn’t know that their precincts were closed, where to go. I don’t think you can have anything tougher to suppress the vote than not having the polls open and people not knowing where to go and having 4 hour waits in line as they did during the primary.
As President Obama said just last week, quote, “Everybody should be able to request and absentee ballot.” Unlike in the past, people will not even have to request an application for an absentee ballot here in Maryland. We’re mailing one to every single voter and encouraging everyone to exercise their right to vote in the safest way possible.
Maryland is one of only 14 states in the entire nation to mail ballots or applications to all registered voters. I will be strongly encouraging Marylanders to vote by mail, and I’m calling on the leaders of both parties to stop all the political nonsense and to join me in encouraging people to vote and make sure everyone has the chance to vote on election day whichever way they choose.
Finally today we want to cover an issue that is very important to so many people, and that’s the plans for Maryland’s public schools this fall. As I said last week, I think we would all like to see our children get back to school as soon as possible, but only if and when we can do so in a way that keeps our students and our teachers safe. Since putting out their recovery plan for education back in May, Dr. Karen Salmon, the state superintendent of schools, and the Maryland State Department of Education, has met with the county boards of education, local school superintendents, teachers, parents, and other key stakeholders to collaborate on safe and effective recovery plans for our Maryland public schools. Several counties have already submitted and announced their proposed plans. Other jurisdictions are continuing to work to finalize theirs in order to meet the August 14 deadline. And I know that people are anxious to get these final decisions, but it’s absolutely critical that rather than rushing, that we get this right for our communities, our teachers, and especially for our children in Maryland.
At this time I’m going to turn it over to our superintendent Karen Salmon so she can provide us an update on the progress.
KAREN SALMON: Thank you, Governor Hogan, and also thank you once again for your sustained leadership during this critical time.
Good afternoon. From the beginning, even as we were suddenly closing school buildings to protect our students, teachers, and communities, Weaver always been working towards the goal of safely reopening. As a lifelong educator, I know that every child is born with an inherent greatness, and that the school learning journey helps children fully realize that potential.
What happens in school buildings is an essential part of our children’s development on so many levels: Academic, social emotional, and nutritional. These can never be fully replaced by a virtual environment. We want to get our students back to school as soon as possible for in-person instruction, and this should be the driving goal and the basis for all of our decisions. Public health experts including the American Academy of Pediatrics agree.
However, the imminent safety and health of students’ safety and staff must always be the first priority. In May, in collaboration with stakeholders, we released our Maryland together Maryland’s recovery plan for education, which follows the state’s overall recovery plan and the Governor’s executive orders. Under our blueprint, local systems have until August 14, as the Governor said, to develop and submit education recovery plans for review by the state board.
Today I want to update Marylanders about the protocols and guidelines we expect to institute going forward. In March, it was a public health imperative for the state to close all schools in an immediate emergency phase addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now with the state firmly in recovery, local systems will have the flexibility to determine in consultation with their local Health Departments how they will open and which groups of students and staff will be able to reenter buildings.
Continuing in stage 2 of recovery, just as schools could begin limited in-person summer instruction, schools can choose to reopen for in-person instruction in the fall. Depending on conditions in their locality, school systems may be more restrictive than the requirements outlined in the state recovery plan. Some systems have begun to lay a path to begin the year all virtual, and some plan to move forward with a hybrid approach.
Our job at the State Department is to help systems succeed and keep staff and students safe, regardless of which path they choose. Within the framework of local control, the state will set a series of guardrails for school systems. First, all school systems must follow CDC guidelines for schools, which stress the importance of hand washing, physical distancing, and cloth face coverings, which must be worn by all staff and students, particularly when physical distancing is not possible. We cannot stress this enough.
Second, all school systems must adhere to protocols instituted by state health officials for addressing an outbreak. Remember that an outbreak is defined as at least one laboratory case of COVID-19.
These protocols which we are releasing today stress several elements including communication and ensuring that a process is in place to notify the school community of a positive test and work with the local Health Department to activate contact tracing procedures. Schools will be providing written notification to all identified contacts and how long they should remain in quarantine. The school should follow instructions from the local Health Department for all matters concerning quarantine, exclusion, and return to school for persons with a positive test for COVID-19 and those who have had close contact.
Third, all school systems must meet a series of benchmarks, including incorporation of equity as a component in a local recovery plan, establishing local education recovery stakeholder groups, identifying learning gaps and instructional placement of students, following and maintaining curriculum frameworks, adhering to the components of IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, adopting and following health procedures as outlined by the Maryland State Department, the Maryland Department of Health, and the CDC, including cleaning and sanitation, ensuring safe transportation for all students, developing a system for tracking attendance, and following the Maryland public secondary school sports athletic association guidance for interscholastic activities and athletics.
As we imagine our schools this fall, we are committed to delivering education safely and effectively to each student with educational equity and justice as the cornerstone. This includes a focus on special education, emergency school meal programs to ensure that no child goes hungry, and addressing the persistent digital divide.
I thank the Governor for his commitment in ensuring we maximize the use of federal funding to help these schools and students most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically these funds ensure that more students will have access to remote learning and the expansion of targeted tutoring initiatives for at-risk students. We know that longstanding gaps in educational opportunity and access have been further exposed and widened by COVID-19. Our goal with these resources is to give local school systems the support and flexibility to focus on and prioritize students most impacted during this crisis.
As always, we will be resolute in our approach on equity, providing intense learning opportunities for those who need the most.
To address the digital divide, $100 million is dedicated to equipping students with up-to-date devices and connectivity. Another $100 million is invested in tutoring and learning programs to address learning loss due to a time away from direct instruction and teacher intervention. To enhance broadband access for Maryland students, $10 million is allocated to the Governor’s Office of Rural Broadband, which will construct a wireless education network in western Maryland, southern Maryland, and on the Eastern Shore.
In total, the Governor has now committed 20 million in CARES Act funding to expand rural broadband and an additional 5 million for urban broadband.
With the inclusion of 45 million from the Governor’s emergency education relief fund, we have committed a total of more than $255 million in CARES Act fund for educational priorities. Part of the funding also includes a competitive grant opportunity available on our website under COVID-19 resources.
I fully appreciate the wide range of input that we have received from our stakeholders, educators, parents, and teachers. The reopening of schools is a deeply personal issue. I hear every day from those who passionately demand that schools be fully reopened, as well as those who are adamant in appeals for only virtual learning. In striking a balance and offering local flexibility, we offer an approach that we will hope will lead to more in-person school time.
What happens in the weeks ahead, as the Governor said, is largely dependent upon each of us. Our actions and continued diligence to social distancing, taking all the necessary precautions to keep each other safe, meaning wearing masks, washing hands, and being honest about health assessments. Staying home and quarantining when necessary.
Parents and guardians will be our strongest allies by conducting daily morning temperature checks and providing extra vigilance to help ensure healthy children are boarding school buses and entering school buildings.
As we experienced in the spring, parents will be left at time with the impossible task of coordinating work schedules with virtual learning. It’s been said it takes a village. Again, we need to be reliant on family members, childcare providers, youth centers, and other partners. I’m confident that if we stay on the current track, we can and we will return to normal operations in the coming year.
Again, we will rely on every available resource to ensure that Maryland’s children have full access to the quality effective and safe education that they deserve. The task of educating every child in Maryland is as complex as the world that they face. It requires the combined efforts of parents, students, teachers, administrators, government, business, and stakeholders. Together, we must support, protect, inspire, and empower. We are Maryland Strong, and we will continue moving forward together.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you, Dr. Salmon.
I’ll just point out, I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier, but we also have Dr. Fran Phillips from the Department of Health here standing by in case there are any health questions I can’t answer. Thank you for joining us, Fran.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I think Dr. Salmon just talked about that at length.
KAREN SALMON: So we have nine systems that have made the decision so far to go virtual. Just for clarity, for others who might not have that information, they include AA County, Baltimore City, actually Baltimore City is until October 16th so not a full semester. Baltimore County, Charles, Hartford, Howard, Montgomery, PG, and Washington. And all the other systems are still in the process of making decisions.
A lot of those systems are in the metro area where we do see the higher number of cases.
Again, asking my opinion, as I said to you all a few months ago, I was really hopeful that we would get a number of students back in the summer for some in-person learning because I think it is critical and we did have some counties that did that with excellent results. I was so proud of some of our nonpublic special education schools who also opened, followed all the guidelines, and brought some of our most needy students back that have incredible issues. And I was very happy about that.
(Question off mic).
I think we all struggle with the decisions about what’s the right timing of things. And I think, you know, my hope is that wouldn’t it be great if we have a vaccine and the situation changes and maybe because we were so fast at going out, maybe we can get them back. I’m always hopeful. I am hopeful about many things, and I am hopeful that we can get back to school, as I said, during the school year.
(Question off mic).
so the 100 million for digital is more for devices. We divided it up among all the school systems in terms of a per-pupil allotment. So they can use that for digital devices or for connectivity, to help students that don’t have the connection.
The 100 million for tutoring was for those students that are the furthest behind, meaning hiring extra people to work more one on one with students to bring them back to where they need to be.
And then the other money for the broadband is to really increase what we probably should have done years ago back in I’m talking about 2000, not now. We should have had this connectivity going on, and the Governor has done a great job getting this ratcheted up to where we need to be. So with this broadband increasing in areas where it’s really difficult to connect, I think we’ll see a better result. And learning will be different than it was this spring. In any place it’s virtual, it will be more robust. It will be more synchronous, meaning all the time with a teacher as opposed to not all the time with a teacher. And it will look much different than it did before. We were spending most of the summer doing professional development with teachers on how to teach virtually. We’ve had great enrollment across the state. So I’m anticipating that we’ll see a very different system as we go forward.
SPEAKER: Governor Hogan, have you considered a statewide mask requirement? (Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We were one of the first states in the country to impose mask orders across the state, and we have that in certain retail locations. We don’t have it everywhere. But we’ll take whatever steps as I mentioned we believe are necessary to protect the public health. At this point in time, as I said, all of our key metrics that we’re watching are either declining or flat and I don’t believe we need to take any additional steps.
But as you know, I was one of the first in the country to close the schools. We were one of the first to declare a state of emergency. One of the first to have a stay-at-home order. If we feel, if we start to see the spike up again, I won’t hesitate to take actions that are necessary. But we don’t believe today as we sit here, based on the facts and the data, that that’s necessary.
(Question off mic).
SPEAKER: Is that true? Are you getting everything you need?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I know the President and I have sometimes disagreed. And that’s one thing I’ve been clear about disagreeing.
I hesitate to be overly critical in the middle of a pandemic when we’re all trying to work together at the federal, state, and local level. It’s obviously not the case. We had a call today with 48 governors across America. There are still things we really need. I’ve said that I think they’ve done a good job of ramping up in a number of areas, and we’ve improved on PPE. They did a good job of ramping up the production act and producing ventilators.
We’re starting to again have testing shortages, not having supplies and running out of capacity across the country. It’s looking like it was back in March and April.
So I think there have been some improvements. The federal government is trying to help. They’ve done some great things with the CARES Act funding that we talked about to help the schools and other things, helped some of our unemployed and our small businesses. But we don’t have all the things we need. Every Governor still needs a lot of other things that we’re still fighting for.
(Question off mic).
We’ve been working on this since March, and I mentioned earlier that Governor Cuomo and I put out a joint statement today. On the Governor all, not only the White House call. We had an update on what was going on on the Hill. We just got back from the fourth of July recess. They’re going on recess again in August. So we have just a couple of weeks for them to get something done. We’re still hopeful. We’ve been pushing the White House, the secretary, the Vice President, McConnell. There’s a rift between republicans and democrats. It’s very frustrating. It’s one of the things I talk about a lot is this divisiveness and dysfunction on Capitol Hill. But we have to get something done. There’s not much disagreement by governors. One or two maybe. But almost all of them believe we need additional help for the states. We’ve already, 1.6 million state and local government workers already lost their jobs. We’re trying to provide more services to more people who really need them with a lot less revenue, and we’re on the front lines. So to cut money for testing, to say we’re not going to provide additional help for the states, it can be devastating. And I think it’s the last thing we need.
I guess the short answer is, we’re still hopeful but frustrated. And we’re expressing — we’re still working with all the parties on every side of this, multiple factions, trying to get something done. But we’re not in control of it. Obviously we’re sort of on the sidelines pushing all we can, but we don’t make the final decisions.
(Question off mic).
We’ve been in touch with the folks in Ocean City. I’ve talked with the mayor of Ocean City a number of times. We are concerned. Whisper County has an uptick in infection rates. It’s a small town, a suburb, where all these people come in. Again, we did not open bars the way Delaware did and most other states did where they were fully open with hundreds of people jammed. In our regulations only allow seated, distanced, capacity restricted. Some people were violating those rules and we had discussions with the mayor of Ocean City who did bring together the liquor board, Health Department folks, inspectors, city police, and county sheriffs to try to enforce that. We’ve had great compliance from some business owners that as soon as someone tested positive, they voluntarily closed to keep their employees and customers safe.
But we had some concerns about some people not following the rules. Delaware closed their bars because they were open. Ours are really not supposed to be and we’re keeping a close eye on it. We are concerned about that.
(Question off mic).
It’s a good question, and maybe Dr. Salmon will weigh in. County boards of education have always had this independent authority. The state sets some parameters, but people were not wanting us to interfere with local decisions. County governments have always had individual authority to make the decisions that are more restrictive than what we’ve done. Not less restrictive. They must follow state law. But our plan is always flexible. I know sports is something people are also frustrated. I don’t know, Karen, if there’s anything you want to add. She probably is more up-to-date than I am on that.
KAREN SALMON: I don’t know, Governor, you continue to answer Fran and my questions pretty well.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I’m sure you’ll tell me if I say something wrong.
KAREN SALMON: The Governor is correct. We have our association, and in our Maryland recovery plan, we do have a section on athletics and sports that school systems can put into their recovery plans.
There were some things that, you know, we were able to do virtually. And interestingly enough, you can do some activities virtually with students. And again, we want to try to engage our students in any way that we can safely coming up.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We recently had some discussions with our coronavirus recovery team and some of our doctors who recently we’ve been taking a look at some of those things and we’re watching them very closely. I think positivity rate dropping is the most important thing, and our plan has for us to look at hospitalizations and rate of deaths. It doesn’t envision the things you just mentioned. New York has different metrics they’re looking at, I guess. It’s not something part of the CDC guidelines or part of our plan here in Maryland. Since we’ve been trending in the right direction for 96 days or whatever…
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We’re going to get Fran. Left you out almost.
(Question off mic).
FRAN PHILLIPS: As the Governor said, I think some of the metrics that they’re using are not the ones that are standard, and some of those are not stable metrics. They are not ones that are replicated. So with that said, what I would say to Marylanders is think about where you go. Think about the risk. And I’m not just talking about out-of-state travel. I’m talking about what we do every day. And I guess that’s the takeaway right now. We have the control. We have the ability to further catch this if we take the steps we know: Hand washing, social distancing, masking. And it’s thinking about yourself and your own ability to absorb risk when you make decisions about what you do every day. That includes interstate travel, but certainly it includes other kinds of activities that we’ll need to take a second look at. And I’m not just talking to people in my age group now. You heard data on positivity. You heard that we have more younger people being hospitalized. And some of those people are hospitalized, they’re not in ICUs, but they’re very, very sick. It belies the idea that they’re immune or invincible or invulnerable. It’s decisions we make every day.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you.