GOVERNOR HOGAN: Good afternoon. Joining me today are health Secretary Dennis Schrader, Deputy Secretary for public health services Dr. Jinlene Chan, and Dr. Ted Delbridge, the executive director of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems.
Thanks to the millions of Marylanders who have rolled up their sleeves, Maryland is one of the most vaccinated states in America. We have now administered more than 7.9 million COVID vaccines. 96.1% of all Marylanders 65 and older have been vaccinated. 83.6% of Maryland adults 18 and older have been vaccinated. And we have vaccinated 82.6% of all eligible Marylanders aged 12 and older.
We have achieved these numbers with strong public health outreach, innovative lottery and scholarship promotions, relentless focus on equity, and without resorting to blanket mandates. As a result, Maryland continues to withstand the Delta variant surge better than just about any other state in America.
Last week we reported the lowest COVID case rate in the nation. Our positivity rate has declined by 20% over the past month. Our hospitalizations are down 60% from their peak. And we remain well below all of our pandemic surge capacity triggers. While hospitals in other parts of the country are overflowing with COVID patients, in Maryland COVID hospitalizations are down and account for only 11% of our total hospitalizations statewide.
We continue to avoid the surges that other states are experiencing by constantly adapting and evolving our public health response. From day 1 of this crisis, our focus has been on preventing hospitalizations and deaths. Our initial strategy was one of containment, which evolved into mitigation and then to vaccination, and we have now moved into a phase of maintaining immunity. We are working to get more of those last remaining 16.4% vaccinated, while also beginning the administration of booster shots for additional protection. There has been limited, confusing, and contradictory guidance from the federal government. In spite of that, Maryland health officials and our state team have spent the last several months building the infrastructure for a statewide operation for boosters. Last month the moment that we received FDA and CDC authorization, we immediately began administering boosters to immunocompromised Marylanders. In addition we launched the antibody testing program for nursing home residents across the state in order to ascertain their current levels of immunity from COVID-19. This pilot program, which was the first of its kind in the country, found that more than 60% of the nursing home residents tested demonstrated some form of waning or weakened immunity and showed that as many as one in three were particularly vulnerable. As a result, we issued an order which made all Marylanders 65 and older living in congregate care settings immediately eligible for booster shots.
Last week immediately after receiving final CDC approval, Maryland became one of the first states in the nation to authorize boosters for seniors and high-risk individuals. As of today, the state of Maryland has already administered over 78,000 booster shots. We have mobilized a robust network of vaccination providers, including pharmacies, primary care providers, mobile clinics, community health centers, and local Health Departments. And we have both the supply and the capacity to provide a booster shot to anyone who needs one.
If you’re confused about boosters, you’re not alone. With so much conflicting guidance out there, I wanted to take a moment today to simply give Marylanders the current status. To determine your eligibility for a COVID-19 booster shot, the simplest thing to do is look at your vaccination card. If you received your second dose of the Pfizer vaccine at least 6 months ago, meaning March 30th or earlier, you may qualify for one of the categories which are currently approved, which are everyone 65 and older, everyone 18 and older with underlying health conditions, and everyone 18 and older whose occupation puts them at increased risk, including first responders, healthcare workers, and public transit and grocery store workers. If you’re in one of these categories, you should strongly consider getting a COVID-19 booster shot immediately.
If, like me, your vaccination card says that you received a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and you are immunocompromised, you are also eligible for a booster shot. However, there’s still no approval or guidance yet on Moderna boosters for the wider population, although the White House this week advised us that this is expected shortly.
If you are one of the month than 280,000 Marylanders who received the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, there is still no federal guidance whatsoever for boosters. I know this is incredibly frustrating, and we repeatedly press for and we are continuing to press for more action. We’re hopeful that we will see more progress in the next few weeks.
In Maryland we’ve already launched a vigorous outreach effort for those Marylanders eligible for a booster shot. Last week the Maryland Department of Health directed vaccine providers to immediately make booster shots available to all eligible Marylanders. State health officials are engaging directly with Maryland nursing and congregate care facilities and with local Health Departments, primary care physicians, hospitals, pharmacies, and other providers across the state, and this week our statewide call center began directly and proactively contacting all eligible Marylanders and have already scheduled more than 30,000 additional appointments for booster shots.
You can visit COVIDvax.maryland.gov to find out where Pfizer boosters are available near you. We will also be launching a series of television and radio ads and encouraging eligible Marylanders to get their booster shot.
The other area where we are awaiting action from the federal government is the approval of vaccines for 5-11-year-olds. Earlier this week Pfizer submitted data to the FDA showing that its vaccine is safe and effective for children. We anticipate that approval of this will come by the end of October.
With that in mind, I have directed state health officials to advance and accelerate their operation plans for vaccinating children, working closely with pediatricians, school systems, and local Health Departments. The very encouraging news is that since the start of the school year, we have seen no surge in the statewide COVID metrics. The cases that have occurred in schools represent a very small fraction of cases statewide, and we do not see any kind of increased severity among children. There are currently only 11 COVID pediatric hospitalizations statewide, which represents just 1.3% of our total COVID hospitalizations, and as I mentioned, COVID patients make up just 11% of our overall hospitalizations.
The most important thing that school systems can do right now is to limit outbreaks and prevent needless quarantines by utilizing the robust testing capacity they’ve been given. Last year Maryland introduced a statewide testing program for schools where we immediately made a million tests available for both public and nonpublic schools. For the current school year, we provided $182 million to local school systems specifically for surveillance testing of the student population, and we have now extended the application period for this program to October 10th. So far only 13 of the 24 public school systems are participating.
Today we are again urging every school system to take advantage of this program. The Maryland Department of Health’s testing program also has an additional 415,800 rapid tests available right now for schools to access. In addition, we have provided over $2.7 billion in emergency federal COVID stimulus funding directly to school systems over the past 18 months in order to keep them safe. However, nearly $2 billion of this funding still remains unutilized. There’s no excuse for any school system to fail to take any steps toward keeping their students and teachers safe.
In addition to kids being back in school, the beginning of fall also brings the start of flu season. This year we’re actively monitoring the flu in addition to all of our COVID metrics. Hospitals are facing issues of staffing shortages. We are taking proactive steps to maximize the ability of our hospitals to increase their nursing workforce. Last week the Maryland Department of Health issued a notice allowing registered nurses or licensed practical nurses who hold a current active license in any other state or jurisdiction to render nursing care in the state of Maryland. State health officials are also strongly encouraging hospital systems to utilize nursing students, nursing assistants, and physician assistants as force multipliers. Our Secretary of Higher education has again issued a request to the leaders of all of the state nursing programs to once again allow the earliest graduation possible for qualified nursing students.
Today we are announcing that we will introduce emergency legislation to make some of these reforms permanent so that our hospital systems have the tools they need to respond to future crises.
Lastly, while nothing is more effective at saving lives than the vaccines, a very effective clinical treatment, monoclonal antibody therapy, the state of Maryland has an abundant supply of this treatment, and state health officials strongly recommend the use of monoclonal antibodies for COVID positive individuals. It’s one of the first things you should do. You should consider doing before having to go to the hospital when it may already be too late. These treatments are available at more than 80 facilities statewide, and accessing them is as simple as talking to your healthcare provider.
For more information, you can look right now at COVIDlink.maryland.gov. We have already administered more than 13,000 of these antibody treatments which have helped us avoid approximately 600 hospitalizations and more than 250 deaths. Many more can be prevented if more patients take advantage of these lifesaving therapeutics, which is why state health officials have directed clinicians to take actions to step up their utilization of monoclonal antibodies and to make sure that every patient who is qualified for this treatment is offered it.
We continue to have one of the strongest health and economic recoveries in the nation, and we continue to work hard every day to save every life we possibly can and to keep us Maryland Strong.
Now I’m going to turn it over to Secretary Dennis Schrader to give us some more details on our ongoing efforts to boost and reach eligible recipients for boosters.
DENNIS SCHRADER: Thank you, Governor.
Good afternoon, everyone. We’ve been preparing to provide Marylanders with COVID-19 booster shots and welcome the news from CDC last Friday. We have also been calling on the federal government to recommend booster shots for some time and fully support this critical step to further keep Marylanders safe.
Throughout this pandemic we’ve been clear and concise and want Marylanders to know exactly who is now eligible for a Pfizer COVID-19 booster and where they can get one. There are four categories of people who are eligible: Marylanders who are 65 or older; Marylanders who are 18 years of age or older living in long-term care settings; Marylanders who are 18-64 at high risk of COVID-19 due to underlying medical conditions; and Marylanders who are 18-64 years old working in settings that increase their risk for exposure to COVID-19.
The only other eligibility requirement is that 6 months needs to have passed since you completed a full two-dose Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine series. In other words, you are eligible 6 months after your second Pfizer shot.
At the moment there are approximately 500,000 Marylanders who are now eligible for a Pfizer booster shot. We currently have an ample supply of more than 1 million Pfizer doses across the state. Eligible Marylanders can get a Pfizer booster shot at one of hundreds of locations in our robust network across the state, including pharmacies, local Health Departments, primary care physicians, hospitals, mobile vaccination clinics, and elsewhere. We’ve updated our COVIDlink.maryland.gov so that you can search where Pfizer vaccines are available near you and make an appointment if necessary with a provider. All COVID-19 vaccine providers in the state have received the Department of Health’s bulletin that provides them with clear guidance, including that anyone who asks for a booster shot simply needs to self-attest that they are eligible and that no provider should turn anyone away.
As the Governor mentioned, the MD go vax call center will reach out to all Marylanders who are now eligible. On Tuesday we began calling Marylanders, and yesterday we started sending texts in both English and Spanish. If called, you will be greeted with a message explaining that you are eligible for a booster and are then given an option to speak to an agent to schedule an appointment or defer. If we reach someone’s voice mail, we leave a message explaining their booster eligibility and we provide information to call us back.
The text asks for you to please call us at 1-855-md-govax or go to COVIDvax.maryland.gov to schedule your booster today.
The call outreach also includes options to submit a request for an in-home vaccination to our “no arm left behind” campaign, including rideshare assistance and MyIR support to troubleshoot access to immunization records.
Regarding MyIR, starting next week, Marylanders will be able to access a QR code that has their COVID-19 vaccination in it through MyIR Global dot com, to continue to demonstrate that you have vaccinations.
All of this is one component of our robust communications plan to proactively encourage those who are now eligible for a booster shot to get one. In addition, we’re going to run television and radio advertisements, we’ve begun posting information on social media, including our go vax Maryland Twitter feed, where you can find facts and other information that you can trust about COVID-19 vaccines and more proactive communications about booster shots.
There is no need to wait to hear from us, however. If you are eligible for a booster shot, we strongly encourage you to get one right away. As I mentioned, anyone who is now eligible for a booster shot or isn’t certain can also call our call center at 1-855-MD-go-vax with any questions.
Before I conclude, questions about monoclonal treatment. Getting tested for COVID-19 is still extremely important and easy. All one has to do is go to COVIDtest.maryland.gov to find one of 1500 locations across the state to get tested. Yesterday more than 33,000 Marylanders were tested. We encourage anyone who has COVID symptoms to get tested right away. Depending on where you get tested, you could receive your results immediately through a rapid test or receive your laboratory results within 48 hours from most labs. If you test positive, monoclonal antibody treatment is a critical and lifesaving tool that is available at no cost to providers or patients across the state. We are encouraging Marylanders who test positive for COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone with COVID to ask their physician about monoclonal antibiotics or go to one of the more than 70 facilities across Maryland that are administering the treatment.
Simultaneously we have renewed our call to physicians to strongly encourage offering monoclonal antibody treatment to patients upon request, to prescribe them accordingly. We have a form that we have sent to all providers to complete if a patient could benefit from monoclonal antibody treatment. This form could be sent to the infusion site with the closest proximity to the patient. Providers can find this form at coronavirus.maryland.gov under “resources.” To date, more than 13,000 doses have been administered in the state and we have sufficient supply of monoclonal antibiotics on hand today.
Finally, if you are now eligible for a booster shot, please get one. If you are unvaccinated, please get vaccinated.
I’ll stop there and I’ll turn it over to my colleague Dr. Ted Delbridge for additional remarks.
DELBRIDGE: Good afternoon. Governor Hogan, Secretary Schrader, thank you for your leadership.
We have been closely monitoring our healthcare system for the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic. Several interventions over the course of this marathon have been directed towards optimizing the ability of the healthcare system to respond. Further, healthcare system metrics have served as an important barometer for how Maryland is doing overall.
Today, there are 7,200 patients in Maryland hospitals. Among them are 797 adults and 11 children with COVID-19. Overall, 10% of patients in acute care hospital beds have COVID-19 as do 22% of patients in ICUs. In fact, one out of every four COVID patients in a hospital is in intensive care.
Some metrics are reassuring. The number of COVID-19 patients in Maryland hospitals has remained stable over the past 3 weeks, we hope signaling a peak in the surge. We are particularly focused on the number of children requiring hospitalization. While any time in a hospital is concerning, children with COVID-19 rates have remained stable. There are several important distinctions between what we have already experienced and what’s to come. Rural hospitals are being disproportionately affected by coronavirus. The hospitals with most patients with COVID-19 are in the western part of the state and Eastern Shore, where there are fewer vaccination rates.
The medical services system can declare a yellow alert. 20% of hospitals were on that status as of this morning. They’re not busy just because of coronavirus but because of illnesses and injuries they treat all the time. Marylanders unquestionably are on the go.
Finally last year we were concerned about the potential convergence of a surge in flu season. Fortunately that did not come to fruition. All the mitigation factors with coronavirus were reducing flu and other respiratory illnesses as well. Flu season was mild last year, with fewer ER visits. Now people on the move seem less likely to be wearing masks and we already see people with an assortment of respiratory illnesses seeking care. Without question, the people of Maryland are fortunate to have a healthcare system that has repeatedly proven its resilience, a testament to the tens of thousands of people who go to work every day in our hospitals, clinics, offices, and in the field. However, those same people are tired of going at 100% for so long. Hospital staffing is a challenge, with less flexibility for resurgences. Thus we continue to treat COVID-19 at the Washington Adventist Hospital and Laurel Hospital. We hope to match the needs of patients with available resources throughout the state. This week we will expand this to pediatric patients and their needs. As I noted, COVID-19 is a small factor contributing to children in hospitals. However, other viruses are affecting children earlier this year than is typical, leading to more hospitalizations and ER visits.
Each of us should be asking: What can I do? First and foremost, if you have not been vaccinated for COVID-19, please do so. This problem will not go away without you. Also more than one-third of people who get COVID-19 end up with long-term health effects. I know that many people still have questions or may have gotten bad information. Please get the answers from reliable resources. Vaccines are safe and effective. I wouldn’t have gotten one myself and made sure my family did as well if I didn’t believe that to be the case. As Governor Hogan and Secretary Schrader said, if you develop COVID-19, speak to your doctor about treatment with monoclonal antibiotics. There’s a limited window of opportunity to receive that treatment once you test positive, so time is of the essence.
Please get a flu vaccine. Flu season starts this week. We must all do what we can to limit the spread of flu, otherwise we create the potential to overwhelm our healthcare system, creating needless suffering and death. The vaccine is the best tool and now is the time. It’s available at pharmacies all over the state.
Pay attention to keeping yourself and those around you healthy. The rules haven’t changed: Wash your hands often. Stay away from people not feeling well. If you aren’t yet vaccinated, play it safe; wear a mask. The challenge is not yet over, but we know we will make it to the finish line. We all need to do our part.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you, doctor. With that, we’ll be happy to take some questions.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I mentioned earlier that we’re leading the nation in vaccination, and so far there are only 16.4% of people remaining who have not been vaccinated which is far better than most places in the country. So we don’t think there’s a need for mandates. We’ve been doing very, very well with the plan that we’ve had for a long time, which is just continuing to encourage people to get vaccinated.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, you know, I’m probably like a lot of people in America completely frustrated with the divisiveness and dysfunction in Washington. The fact that they don’t ever seem to get anything done. Maybe both parties are to blame, but this is an infrastructure bill which I’ve been working on for more than 2 years. We passed it overwhelmingly in the Senate. We got the President on board with it. And this was undoubtedly his signature achievement about getting people together, republicans and democrats have been saying they would do this for decades. We finally are on the goal line, and the House is playing games and now trying to force other things into the discussion. The extra 3 and a half trillion dollars that there’s not a single vote for on the republican side, no bipartisanship on, needs to be taken out and not tied together. It’s frustrating. The leadership in the House is about to blow up both of these deals and we may end up with nothing which would be a real shame. And quite frankly, it’s not just a failure of leadership in the House. It’s the President, if he really wanted to get this done, he would tell the leaders in the House to pass this and stop playing games without all these other things. So yeah, very frustrating. Has been for a long time but probably never more so than today.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We’re going to take action against anybody who fails to provide a booster shot to somebody who is eligible. There’s no question about that. But yes, it’s very frustrating. It’s not just my frustration. All 50 governors are on a call with the White House every week and every one of them is expressing frustration. They’ll say one thing one day and the complete opposite the next day. They give conflicting information, both the White House and CDC and FDA. It is constantly changing. We understand there’s a lot going on, but they have to get more clear. The reason I had a press conference today is mostly just to provide some clear guidance because people are confused out there. But we again reiterated today that providers need to provide the boosters to anyone eligible. They can go on the website. We’re contacting every person who is eligible with phone calls and text messages, and we’ll make sure they get that booster vaccine. If we find someone not providing them, we will try to address it from the Health Department. We were on a Zoom call today with Dr. Redfield, who said he’s already been called four times by the Maryland Department of Health in our system calling out because he’s eligible for a booster and hasn’t got it.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It was a mistake and I think that’s one of the things we’re asking them to clarify. Also, they keep telling us that we’re going to get more definitive answers and broadening of the category hopefully within 2 weeks, perhaps Moderna and perhaps in 4 weeks the approval on children that are younger. But I just can’t speak for why.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I can only go by what they put out. And it’s unclear. We are trying to be as aggressive as possible. If someone feels they’re in one of those categories, we’re going to try to get them a booster shot.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Under a state of emergency, I had the power to change all of those laws, and the state Health Department has the power to put in orders. But they are short-term in nature and they are only for that current emergency. Some of these we found would be really helpful going forward and we of course need the legislature’s concurrence, so we’ll likely be submitting that on the first day of session or if there’s a special session before that, we’ll probably do the first day of that.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I think we’ll be making some determinations about that shortly, but we don’t want to spend it all. Look, when I ran for Governor, there was a $5.1 trillion deficit. We now are at zero and have a surplus. We don’t need to go back in the hole like we were before. We worked very hard to get to this point, and we have one of the best economic recoveries, 16 months of job growth, all the numbers doing better than expected, and that’s great. But we’re going to continue to be fiscally responsible and not just find new ways to waste that money. We’re going to try to keep as much of that on hand as we can or figure out how to give some of it back to the taxpayers.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, we’re all learning as this thing evolves. No one has been — we’re in uncharted territory. What we’re finding now, what the federal government is just discovering and what we’ve been finding, while these vaccines were a tremendous success, tremendously effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalizations, and death, they do have only a certain shelf life. So as I mentioned earlier, we’re about maintaining immunity because we’re finding people after 4, 5, 6 months, it starts to drop off. We started vaccinating people 9 months ago. So it’s not just how many people do we get vaccinated the first time. It’s how many people can we keep safe for a long period of time until we stamp this thing out.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It’s an optional program. We just want to make sure they’re doing robust testing. If the local Health Department has the capacity and is doing a good job, we don’t necessarily want to upset the apple cart. But we have some of our local leaders saying they didn’t have the ability to go testing. We’ve had unlimited amounts of testing and money available and keep repeatedly telling them that. So if people are not comfortable with where they are on testing, then they should get more involved. But if they have a good program at the county, that’s perfectly acceptable. We just want to make sure the kids are safe.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: What do you mean?
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, right now students can’t get vaccinations and we’ve done 82% of all the ones who are eligible, but a lot of the kids are not approved by the federal government. We also I just mentioned because we’ve done so many that we haven’t found the need for it, but we couldn’t mandate even if we wanted to that kids get vaccinated if they’re not allowed to get vaccinated.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: No, I think it’s just another way for people to have the convenience of being able to show that they have it. But we’re not thinking of any vaccine passport.
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: The program has ended at the federal level. That’s a question better directed to the President or the congressional delegation rather than us. We didn’t make the decision. But we did add more state money to the program. I know early on. I don’t know how many states did, but we provided additional money over that.
Thank you.
Thanks to the millions of Marylanders who have rolled up their sleeves, Maryland is one of the most vaccinated states in America. We have now administered more than 7.9 million COVID vaccines. 96.1% of all Marylanders 65 and older have been vaccinated. 83.6% of Maryland adults 18 and older have been vaccinated. And we have vaccinated 82.6% of all eligible Marylanders aged 12 and older.
We have achieved these numbers with strong public health outreach, innovative lottery and scholarship promotions, relentless focus on equity, and without resorting to blanket mandates. As a result, Maryland continues to withstand the Delta variant surge better than just about any other state in America.
Last week we reported the lowest COVID case rate in the nation. Our positivity rate has declined by 20% over the past month. Our hospitalizations are down 60% from their peak. And we remain well below all of our pandemic surge capacity triggers. While hospitals in other parts of the country are overflowing with COVID patients, in Maryland COVID hospitalizations are down and account for only 11% of our total hospitalizations statewide.
We continue to avoid the surges that other states are experiencing by constantly adapting and evolving our public health response. From day 1 of this crisis, our focus has been on preventing hospitalizations and deaths. Our initial strategy was one of containment, which evolved into mitigation and then to vaccination, and we have now moved into a phase of maintaining immunity. We are working to get more of those last remaining 16.4% vaccinated, while also beginning the administration of booster shots for additional protection. There has been limited, confusing, and contradictory guidance from the federal government. In spite of that, Maryland health officials and our state team have spent the last several months building the infrastructure for a statewide operation for boosters. Last month the moment that we received FDA and CDC authorization, we immediately began administering boosters to immunocompromised Marylanders. In addition we launched the antibody testing program for nursing home residents across the state in order to ascertain their current levels of immunity from COVID-19. This pilot program, which was the first of its kind in the country, found that more than 60% of the nursing home residents tested demonstrated some form of waning or weakened immunity and showed that as many as one in three were particularly vulnerable. As a result, we issued an order which made all Marylanders 65 and older living in congregate care settings immediately eligible for booster shots.
Last week immediately after receiving final CDC approval, Maryland became one of the first states in the nation to authorize boosters for seniors and high-risk individuals. As of today, the state of Maryland has already administered over 78,000 booster shots. We have mobilized a robust network of vaccination providers, including pharmacies, primary care providers, mobile clinics, community health centers, and local Health Departments. And we have both the supply and the capacity to provide a booster shot to anyone who needs one.
If you’re confused about boosters, you’re not alone. With so much conflicting guidance out there, I wanted to take a moment today to simply give Marylanders the current status. To determine your eligibility for a COVID-19 booster shot, the simplest thing to do is look at your vaccination card. If you received your second dose of the Pfizer vaccine at least 6 months ago, meaning March 30th or earlier, you may qualify for one of the categories which are currently approved, which are everyone 65 and older, everyone 18 and older with underlying health conditions, and everyone 18 and older whose occupation puts them at increased risk, including first responders, healthcare workers, and public transit and grocery store workers. If you’re in one of these categories, you should strongly consider getting a COVID-19 booster shot immediately.
If, like me, your vaccination card says that you received a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and you are immunocompromised, you are also eligible for a booster shot. However, there’s still no approval or guidance yet on Moderna boosters for the wider population, although the White House this week advised us that this is expected shortly.
If you are one of the month than 280,000 Marylanders who received the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, there is still no federal guidance whatsoever for boosters. I know this is incredibly frustrating, and we repeatedly press for and we are continuing to press for more action. We’re hopeful that we will see more progress in the next few weeks.
In Maryland we’ve already launched a vigorous outreach effort for those Marylanders eligible for a booster shot. Last week the Maryland Department of Health directed vaccine providers to immediately make booster shots available to all eligible Marylanders. State health officials are engaging directly with Maryland nursing and congregate care facilities and with local Health Departments, primary care physicians, hospitals, pharmacies, and other providers across the state, and this week our statewide call center began directly and proactively contacting all eligible Marylanders and have already scheduled more than 30,000 additional appointments for booster shots.
You can visit COVIDvax.maryland.gov to find out where Pfizer boosters are available near you. We will also be launching a series of television and radio ads and encouraging eligible Marylanders to get their booster shot.
The other area where we are awaiting action from the federal government is the approval of vaccines for 5-11-year-olds. Earlier this week Pfizer submitted data to the FDA showing that its vaccine is safe and effective for children. We anticipate that approval of this will come by the end of October.
With that in mind, I have directed state health officials to advance and accelerate their operation plans for vaccinating children, working closely with pediatricians, school systems, and local Health Departments. The very encouraging news is that since the start of the school year, we have seen no surge in the statewide COVID metrics. The cases that have occurred in schools represent a very small fraction of cases statewide, and we do not see any kind of increased severity among children. There are currently only 11 COVID pediatric hospitalizations statewide, which represents just 1.3% of our total COVID hospitalizations, and as I mentioned, COVID patients make up just 11% of our overall hospitalizations.
The most important thing that school systems can do right now is to limit outbreaks and prevent needless quarantines by utilizing the robust testing capacity they’ve been given. Last year Maryland introduced a statewide testing program for schools where we immediately made a million tests available for both public and nonpublic schools. For the current school year, we provided $182 million to local school systems specifically for surveillance testing of the student population, and we have now extended the application period for this program to October 10th. So far only 13 of the 24 public school systems are participating.
Today we are again urging every school system to take advantage of this program. The Maryland Department of Health’s testing program also has an additional 415,800 rapid tests available right now for schools to access. In addition, we have provided over $2.7 billion in emergency federal COVID stimulus funding directly to school systems over the past 18 months in order to keep them safe. However, nearly $2 billion of this funding still remains unutilized. There’s no excuse for any school system to fail to take any steps toward keeping their students and teachers safe.
In addition to kids being back in school, the beginning of fall also brings the start of flu season. This year we’re actively monitoring the flu in addition to all of our COVID metrics. Hospitals are facing issues of staffing shortages. We are taking proactive steps to maximize the ability of our hospitals to increase their nursing workforce. Last week the Maryland Department of Health issued a notice allowing registered nurses or licensed practical nurses who hold a current active license in any other state or jurisdiction to render nursing care in the state of Maryland. State health officials are also strongly encouraging hospital systems to utilize nursing students, nursing assistants, and physician assistants as force multipliers. Our Secretary of Higher education has again issued a request to the leaders of all of the state nursing programs to once again allow the earliest graduation possible for qualified nursing students.
Today we are announcing that we will introduce emergency legislation to make some of these reforms permanent so that our hospital systems have the tools they need to respond to future crises.
Lastly, while nothing is more effective at saving lives than the vaccines, a very effective clinical treatment, monoclonal antibody therapy, the state of Maryland has an abundant supply of this treatment, and state health officials strongly recommend the use of monoclonal antibodies for COVID positive individuals. It’s one of the first things you should do. You should consider doing before having to go to the hospital when it may already be too late. These treatments are available at more than 80 facilities statewide, and accessing them is as simple as talking to your healthcare provider.
For more information, you can look right now at COVIDlink.maryland.gov. We have already administered more than 13,000 of these antibody treatments which have helped us avoid approximately 600 hospitalizations and more than 250 deaths. Many more can be prevented if more patients take advantage of these lifesaving therapeutics, which is why state health officials have directed clinicians to take actions to step up their utilization of monoclonal antibodies and to make sure that every patient who is qualified for this treatment is offered it.
We continue to have one of the strongest health and economic recoveries in the nation, and we continue to work hard every day to save every life we possibly can and to keep us Maryland Strong.
Now I’m going to turn it over to Secretary Dennis Schrader to give us some more details on our ongoing efforts to boost and reach eligible recipients for boosters.
DENNIS SCHRADER: Thank you, Governor.
Good afternoon, everyone. We’ve been preparing to provide Marylanders with COVID-19 booster shots and welcome the news from CDC last Friday. We have also been calling on the federal government to recommend booster shots for some time and fully support this critical step to further keep Marylanders safe.
Throughout this pandemic we’ve been clear and concise and want Marylanders to know exactly who is now eligible for a Pfizer COVID-19 booster and where they can get one. There are four categories of people who are eligible: Marylanders who are 65 or older; Marylanders who are 18 years of age or older living in long-term care settings; Marylanders who are 18-64 at high risk of COVID-19 due to underlying medical conditions; and Marylanders who are 18-64 years old working in settings that increase their risk for exposure to COVID-19.
The only other eligibility requirement is that 6 months needs to have passed since you completed a full two-dose Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine series. In other words, you are eligible 6 months after your second Pfizer shot.
At the moment there are approximately 500,000 Marylanders who are now eligible for a Pfizer booster shot. We currently have an ample supply of more than 1 million Pfizer doses across the state. Eligible Marylanders can get a Pfizer booster shot at one of hundreds of locations in our robust network across the state, including pharmacies, local Health Departments, primary care physicians, hospitals, mobile vaccination clinics, and elsewhere. We’ve updated our COVIDlink.maryland.gov so that you can search where Pfizer vaccines are available near you and make an appointment if necessary with a provider. All COVID-19 vaccine providers in the state have received the Department of Health’s bulletin that provides them with clear guidance, including that anyone who asks for a booster shot simply needs to self-attest that they are eligible and that no provider should turn anyone away.
As the Governor mentioned, the MD go vax call center will reach out to all Marylanders who are now eligible. On Tuesday we began calling Marylanders, and yesterday we started sending texts in both English and Spanish. If called, you will be greeted with a message explaining that you are eligible for a booster and are then given an option to speak to an agent to schedule an appointment or defer. If we reach someone’s voice mail, we leave a message explaining their booster eligibility and we provide information to call us back.
The text asks for you to please call us at 1-855-md-govax or go to COVIDvax.maryland.gov to schedule your booster today.
The call outreach also includes options to submit a request for an in-home vaccination to our “no arm left behind” campaign, including rideshare assistance and MyIR support to troubleshoot access to immunization records.
Regarding MyIR, starting next week, Marylanders will be able to access a QR code that has their COVID-19 vaccination in it through MyIR Global dot com, to continue to demonstrate that you have vaccinations.
All of this is one component of our robust communications plan to proactively encourage those who are now eligible for a booster shot to get one. In addition, we’re going to run television and radio advertisements, we’ve begun posting information on social media, including our go vax Maryland Twitter feed, where you can find facts and other information that you can trust about COVID-19 vaccines and more proactive communications about booster shots.
There is no need to wait to hear from us, however. If you are eligible for a booster shot, we strongly encourage you to get one right away. As I mentioned, anyone who is now eligible for a booster shot or isn’t certain can also call our call center at 1-855-MD-go-vax with any questions.
Before I conclude, questions about monoclonal treatment. Getting tested for COVID-19 is still extremely important and easy. All one has to do is go to COVIDtest.maryland.gov to find one of 1500 locations across the state to get tested. Yesterday more than 33,000 Marylanders were tested. We encourage anyone who has COVID symptoms to get tested right away. Depending on where you get tested, you could receive your results immediately through a rapid test or receive your laboratory results within 48 hours from most labs. If you test positive, monoclonal antibody treatment is a critical and lifesaving tool that is available at no cost to providers or patients across the state. We are encouraging Marylanders who test positive for COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone with COVID to ask their physician about monoclonal antibiotics or go to one of the more than 70 facilities across Maryland that are administering the treatment.
Simultaneously we have renewed our call to physicians to strongly encourage offering monoclonal antibody treatment to patients upon request, to prescribe them accordingly. We have a form that we have sent to all providers to complete if a patient could benefit from monoclonal antibody treatment. This form could be sent to the infusion site with the closest proximity to the patient. Providers can find this form at coronavirus.maryland.gov under “resources.” To date, more than 13,000 doses have been administered in the state and we have sufficient supply of monoclonal antibiotics on hand today.
Finally, if you are now eligible for a booster shot, please get one. If you are unvaccinated, please get vaccinated.
I’ll stop there and I’ll turn it over to my colleague Dr. Ted Delbridge for additional remarks.
DELBRIDGE: Good afternoon. Governor Hogan, Secretary Schrader, thank you for your leadership.
We have been closely monitoring our healthcare system for the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic. Several interventions over the course of this marathon have been directed towards optimizing the ability of the healthcare system to respond. Further, healthcare system metrics have served as an important barometer for how Maryland is doing overall.
Today, there are 7,200 patients in Maryland hospitals. Among them are 797 adults and 11 children with COVID-19. Overall, 10% of patients in acute care hospital beds have COVID-19 as do 22% of patients in ICUs. In fact, one out of every four COVID patients in a hospital is in intensive care.
Some metrics are reassuring. The number of COVID-19 patients in Maryland hospitals has remained stable over the past 3 weeks, we hope signaling a peak in the surge. We are particularly focused on the number of children requiring hospitalization. While any time in a hospital is concerning, children with COVID-19 rates have remained stable. There are several important distinctions between what we have already experienced and what’s to come. Rural hospitals are being disproportionately affected by coronavirus. The hospitals with most patients with COVID-19 are in the western part of the state and Eastern Shore, where there are fewer vaccination rates.
The medical services system can declare a yellow alert. 20% of hospitals were on that status as of this morning. They’re not busy just because of coronavirus but because of illnesses and injuries they treat all the time. Marylanders unquestionably are on the go.
Finally last year we were concerned about the potential convergence of a surge in flu season. Fortunately that did not come to fruition. All the mitigation factors with coronavirus were reducing flu and other respiratory illnesses as well. Flu season was mild last year, with fewer ER visits. Now people on the move seem less likely to be wearing masks and we already see people with an assortment of respiratory illnesses seeking care. Without question, the people of Maryland are fortunate to have a healthcare system that has repeatedly proven its resilience, a testament to the tens of thousands of people who go to work every day in our hospitals, clinics, offices, and in the field. However, those same people are tired of going at 100% for so long. Hospital staffing is a challenge, with less flexibility for resurgences. Thus we continue to treat COVID-19 at the Washington Adventist Hospital and Laurel Hospital. We hope to match the needs of patients with available resources throughout the state. This week we will expand this to pediatric patients and their needs. As I noted, COVID-19 is a small factor contributing to children in hospitals. However, other viruses are affecting children earlier this year than is typical, leading to more hospitalizations and ER visits.
Each of us should be asking: What can I do? First and foremost, if you have not been vaccinated for COVID-19, please do so. This problem will not go away without you. Also more than one-third of people who get COVID-19 end up with long-term health effects. I know that many people still have questions or may have gotten bad information. Please get the answers from reliable resources. Vaccines are safe and effective. I wouldn’t have gotten one myself and made sure my family did as well if I didn’t believe that to be the case. As Governor Hogan and Secretary Schrader said, if you develop COVID-19, speak to your doctor about treatment with monoclonal antibiotics. There’s a limited window of opportunity to receive that treatment once you test positive, so time is of the essence.
Please get a flu vaccine. Flu season starts this week. We must all do what we can to limit the spread of flu, otherwise we create the potential to overwhelm our healthcare system, creating needless suffering and death. The vaccine is the best tool and now is the time. It’s available at pharmacies all over the state.
Pay attention to keeping yourself and those around you healthy. The rules haven’t changed: Wash your hands often. Stay away from people not feeling well. If you aren’t yet vaccinated, play it safe; wear a mask. The challenge is not yet over, but we know we will make it to the finish line. We all need to do our part.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you, doctor. With that, we’ll be happy to take some questions.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I mentioned earlier that we’re leading the nation in vaccination, and so far there are only 16.4% of people remaining who have not been vaccinated which is far better than most places in the country. So we don’t think there’s a need for mandates. We’ve been doing very, very well with the plan that we’ve had for a long time, which is just continuing to encourage people to get vaccinated.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, you know, I’m probably like a lot of people in America completely frustrated with the divisiveness and dysfunction in Washington. The fact that they don’t ever seem to get anything done. Maybe both parties are to blame, but this is an infrastructure bill which I’ve been working on for more than 2 years. We passed it overwhelmingly in the Senate. We got the President on board with it. And this was undoubtedly his signature achievement about getting people together, republicans and democrats have been saying they would do this for decades. We finally are on the goal line, and the House is playing games and now trying to force other things into the discussion. The extra 3 and a half trillion dollars that there’s not a single vote for on the republican side, no bipartisanship on, needs to be taken out and not tied together. It’s frustrating. The leadership in the House is about to blow up both of these deals and we may end up with nothing which would be a real shame. And quite frankly, it’s not just a failure of leadership in the House. It’s the President, if he really wanted to get this done, he would tell the leaders in the House to pass this and stop playing games without all these other things. So yeah, very frustrating. Has been for a long time but probably never more so than today.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We’re going to take action against anybody who fails to provide a booster shot to somebody who is eligible. There’s no question about that. But yes, it’s very frustrating. It’s not just my frustration. All 50 governors are on a call with the White House every week and every one of them is expressing frustration. They’ll say one thing one day and the complete opposite the next day. They give conflicting information, both the White House and CDC and FDA. It is constantly changing. We understand there’s a lot going on, but they have to get more clear. The reason I had a press conference today is mostly just to provide some clear guidance because people are confused out there. But we again reiterated today that providers need to provide the boosters to anyone eligible. They can go on the website. We’re contacting every person who is eligible with phone calls and text messages, and we’ll make sure they get that booster vaccine. If we find someone not providing them, we will try to address it from the Health Department. We were on a Zoom call today with Dr. Redfield, who said he’s already been called four times by the Maryland Department of Health in our system calling out because he’s eligible for a booster and hasn’t got it.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It was a mistake and I think that’s one of the things we’re asking them to clarify. Also, they keep telling us that we’re going to get more definitive answers and broadening of the category hopefully within 2 weeks, perhaps Moderna and perhaps in 4 weeks the approval on children that are younger. But I just can’t speak for why.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I can only go by what they put out. And it’s unclear. We are trying to be as aggressive as possible. If someone feels they’re in one of those categories, we’re going to try to get them a booster shot.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Under a state of emergency, I had the power to change all of those laws, and the state Health Department has the power to put in orders. But they are short-term in nature and they are only for that current emergency. Some of these we found would be really helpful going forward and we of course need the legislature’s concurrence, so we’ll likely be submitting that on the first day of session or if there’s a special session before that, we’ll probably do the first day of that.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I think we’ll be making some determinations about that shortly, but we don’t want to spend it all. Look, when I ran for Governor, there was a $5.1 trillion deficit. We now are at zero and have a surplus. We don’t need to go back in the hole like we were before. We worked very hard to get to this point, and we have one of the best economic recoveries, 16 months of job growth, all the numbers doing better than expected, and that’s great. But we’re going to continue to be fiscally responsible and not just find new ways to waste that money. We’re going to try to keep as much of that on hand as we can or figure out how to give some of it back to the taxpayers.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, we’re all learning as this thing evolves. No one has been — we’re in uncharted territory. What we’re finding now, what the federal government is just discovering and what we’ve been finding, while these vaccines were a tremendous success, tremendously effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalizations, and death, they do have only a certain shelf life. So as I mentioned earlier, we’re about maintaining immunity because we’re finding people after 4, 5, 6 months, it starts to drop off. We started vaccinating people 9 months ago. So it’s not just how many people do we get vaccinated the first time. It’s how many people can we keep safe for a long period of time until we stamp this thing out.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It’s an optional program. We just want to make sure they’re doing robust testing. If the local Health Department has the capacity and is doing a good job, we don’t necessarily want to upset the apple cart. But we have some of our local leaders saying they didn’t have the ability to go testing. We’ve had unlimited amounts of testing and money available and keep repeatedly telling them that. So if people are not comfortable with where they are on testing, then they should get more involved. But if they have a good program at the county, that’s perfectly acceptable. We just want to make sure the kids are safe.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: What do you mean?
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, right now students can’t get vaccinations and we’ve done 82% of all the ones who are eligible, but a lot of the kids are not approved by the federal government. We also I just mentioned because we’ve done so many that we haven’t found the need for it, but we couldn’t mandate even if we wanted to that kids get vaccinated if they’re not allowed to get vaccinated.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: No, I think it’s just another way for people to have the convenience of being able to show that they have it. But we’re not thinking of any vaccine passport.
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: The program has ended at the federal level. That’s a question better directed to the President or the congressional delegation rather than us. We didn’t make the decision. But we did add more state money to the program. I know early on. I don’t know how many states did, but we provided additional money over that.
Thank you.