In the first full week after the expiration of Maryland’s stay-at-home order, parts of the state reopened to a new normal while others clamped down on their restrictions in an attempt to stave off further spread of the coronavirus in their jurisdictions.
But the differences in approach in neighboring counties has highlighted challenges in the state’s path to reopening. Though Baltimore and several other counties remain under a stay-at-home order, residents from all over the state flocked to Ocean City last weekend, where the beach and boardwalk saw thousands of visitors return after a slow start to the season.
In Baltimore County, county Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said at a Thursday news conference that retailers, salons and barber shops will soon reopen to 10 people or fewer at a time. But, meanwhile, city residents learned this week they won’t have summer events to attend, as all major gatherings with the potential to draw 250 people or more have been canceled through Aug. 31.
To keep Marylanders up to date with the week’s most pressing takeaways, here are five key points from The Baltimore Sun’s coronavirus coverage.
Testing to expand throughout Maryland
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has said, repeatedly, that the state must expand its testing capacity in order to reopen. Now, more than two months since the Republican governor declared a state of emergency, his administration has pledged to ramp up testing to include people who do not have symptoms of COVID-19, as well as all detainees and correction officers inside juvenile detention centers.
If successful, this expansion would clear some of the major hurdles in the way of a safe reopening. Since Maryland began testing and tracking those with the coronavirus, only those with symptoms — or who could prove they had come into direct contact with the virus — had a chance of getting swabbed, and even then, many were turned away.
National testing shortages have contributed to the state’s evolving policy. It has left many potential carriers of the virus able to spread it without knowing, especially those in essential workplaces and in confined spaces such as correction centers and nursing homes — where many prove especially vulnerable to developing serious illness.
As testing expands, the number of positive cases the state reports each day will likely spike, too. But Hogan’s administration considers the number of people hospitalized the most important metric to track. For now, that number continues to curve downward.
However, there is still an outsized demand for tests. On the first day of appointment-free testing, the Maryland State Fairgrounds testing site in Timonium reached capacity in less than an hour.
Hogan faces first round of serious criticism
For weeks, Hogan and his team operated with bipartisan praise of his response to the pandemic. He appeared on a number of national media networks and as a guest on outlets such as Barstool Sports and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
The smooth sailing has ended somewhat, though, as criticisms of the governor began to mount last week — particularly after the governor kicked off the first phase of the state’s reopening plan without consulting other county executives or local leaders. Many have diverged from Hogan, with some jurisdictions maintaining their district’s restrictions or moving at a slower pace than what the governor outlined in his amendment to the stay-at-home order. (The governor’s office noted that the recovery plan allows for local jurisdictions to make their own reopening decisions.)
Democratic legislators have since challenged the administration over its response to various aspects of the mitigation strategy, saying Hogan and his team have not provided enough transparency about some decisions. And public health experts such as Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein a former Baltimore health commissioner and former state health secretary, voiced concerns about indoor retailers, salons and places of worship in the state reopening too soon.
Meanwhile, other groups have mobilized against the governor over complaints that Hogan has not done enough about the economy and statewide unemployment.
“Some people think we’re moving too fast and some people think we’re moving too slow, so it’s probably the right move,” Hogan said last week.