Gov Hogan Covid-19 Actions

RAISING MEMA ACTIVATION LEVEL TO FULL: Maryland Emergency Management will move to its highest activation level to mobilize all state resources and coordinate response resources with counties and local officials.

ACTIVATION OF NATIONAL GUARD: The National Guard is activated to move to its highest state of readiness. It's not clear which units will be called on, but it won't be the entire Guard, Hogan said. Some units may respond to medical needs, while some will help with food transport.

PROHIBITION ON MASS GATHERINGS AND CLOSURE OF SENIOR CENTERS: Effective immediately, gatherings of more than 250 people, including social, community, spiritual, religious, recreational, leisure, and sporting gatherings, are prohibited at all locations and venues.

·                         Planned large gatherings and events must be canceled or postponed until the state of emergency ends.

·                         All senior citizen activities centers will close beginning Friday, March 13, until he state of emergency ends.

CLOSURE OF SCHOOLS: State Superintendent Karen Salmon said starting March 16, all schools throughout Maryland will close through Friday, March 27.

·                         During the school closure, all school buildings and buses should be cleaned and disinfected to prevent spread of the virus upon the return of students and staff to school. The office also recommends that days previously scheduled for school closure during spring break be used as days off during this identified timeframe.

·                         Administrators, faculty, staff, and parents/guardians should begin to immediately prepare for and implement measures for the continuity of educational services during a prolonged period of school closure.

·                         Plans regarding childcare services are being developed by MSDE at this time to ensure that the children of emergency services personnel have access to childcare throughout a prolonged period of school closure.

CLOSURE OF CRUISE TERMINAL AT PORT OF BALTIMORE: No passenger or crew member will be allowed to disembark at any terminal at the Port of Baltimore from any passenger vessel that has made a call at port outside of the United States since Jan. 31. The Baltimore cruise ship terminal will close until further notice.

The only exceptions are the Carnival Pride and the RCL Grandeur of the Seas, which are due to return to port in the coming days, provided that no person on board such vessel has a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 or is under investigation for the virus.

EXTENSION OF PERMITTING DEADLINES: Because renewing expiring permits or licenses often requires the public to enter public buildings and interact with state employees, all licenses, permits, registrations, and other authorizations issued by state agencies that would expire during the current state of emergency will be extended until the 30th day after the state of emergency is lifted. Read the executive order.

HOSPITAL VISITATION POLICIES: Hospitals should limit visitation, including:

·                         No one under the age of 18 is permitted to visit, including in all waiting areas and common spaces.

·                         Only one adult visitor per patient in all areas of the hospital.

·                         Visitors should be screened for flu-like symptoms.

·                         Visitors who have traveled internationally may not visit for 14 days after arrival into the United States.

SUSPENSION OF VISITS TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES: The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is suspending all visits to its correctional facilities effective immediately. The department will provide free phone calls and video visitation for inmates.

·                         There have been no cases of coronavirus in our correctional facilities.

·                         At this time, facility programming will continue on a case-by-case basis.

·                         DPSCS will re-evaluate the situation often in an effort to restore normal visits as soon as possible.

TELEWORK FOR NON-ESSENTIAL STATE EMPLOYEES: Mandatory telework will begin March 13 across state agencies for all non-essential state employees.

The measures came after authorities uncovered the state's first case of the new coronavirus spreading to someone with no exposure to the disease via travel or an infected person. Hogan said midday Thursday that the first case of what is called the community transmission of COVID-19 is a Prince George's County resident whose illness was confirmed Wednesday night.

"The first case of COV-19 community transmission in Maryland means we are entering a new phase of working to mitigate and limit the spread of this pandemic," Hogan tweeted. "What we are seeing now is what we have been anticipating and preparing for over the last several weeks."

The World Health Organization said Wednesday it now considers the global outbreak to be a "pandemic." The pandemic declaration refers to the scope of the new coronavirus — but not its severity — and means it has become a "worldwide spread of a new disease."

The state of Maryland is continuing to operate under a state of emergency. To date, there are 17 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Maryland, with two of those patients still in the hospital. But officials said three of the 12 have fully recovered and are out of quarantine.

Fran Phillips, Maryland's deputy secretary for public health services, said that their recoveries are evidence that it is a disease that can be managed.