Gov. Hogan Delivers Update On Maryland's COVID-19 Response
BALTIMORE (WJZ) – Gov. Larry Hogan is preparing to update the public on Maryland's COVID-19 state of emergency.
Hogan intends to share additional details about the state's efforts to get COVID-19 under control during a 1 p.m. press conference at the UM Shore Medical Pavillion at Easton on Thursday.
Hogan declared the state of emergency on Jan. 4. after hospitalizations topped 3,000 in Maryland. That same day, he signed a pair of executive orders.
The first executive order empowered the Maryland Department of Health to regulate hospital staffing and resources. The second activated 1,000 Maryland National Guard members to shore up the state's EMS ranks.
"While we can't manufacture doctors and nurses who don't exist, we have continued to do everything we possibly can do at the state level in order to help our hospitals withstand this surge and to save lives," Hogan said on Jan. 4.
In the days that followed, the Harford County Health Department set up a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site at Ripken Stadium. Soon after, Hogan said the state would open an additional 20 state-run COVID-19 testing clinics near hospitals statewide.
At least 10 of those sites are already up and running.
Once operational, all 20 locations will be open seven days a week for walk-up and drive-through testing with no appointment required.
"Health care workers are exhausted and burned out," Hogan said Wednesday. "They're working around the clock."
Hogan has called on the Biden administration to provide more shipments of monoclonal antibody treatments. He also wants to ramp up production and distribution of COVID-19 tests and newly authorized antiviral medicines.