By Hannah Sabo and Timothy Klapac
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Gov. Larry Hogan said Friday that Maryland now has “widespread community transmission” of the deadly coronavirus infections with cases confirmed in 60 different nursing homes.
“While we’re intensely focused on these particular clusters,” Hogan said at a news conference about transmission of COVID-19 among the elderly population, “I want to be very clear: we now have widespread community transmission. This virus is everywhere, and it is a threat to nearly everyone.”

Hogan stressed that “the number of positive cases has tripled in less than a week” with Maryland reporting 2,758 confirmed cases, including 427 of those infections reported in 24 hours. He said that 416 Maryland residents who have tested positive are hospitalized, including 43% in intensive care. And, 50% of the state’s cases are people younger than 50. There have been 42 deaths in the state.
Sixty different nursing homes have reported cases of COVID-19. An outbreak in the Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mount Airy caused 99 transmissions of the disease among both staff and patients. Officials said that 42 patients have been transported to 14 separate hospitals. Five deaths have occurred related to the nursing home, officials said.
Baltimore City has 313 confirmed cases and three deaths, while Baltimore County count 427 cases and four deaths. Montgomery County stands as the most heavily populated county in the state of Maryland and reported 566 coronavirus cases and nine deaths. Frederick County has 54 cases and two deaths, while Washington County has 27 cases and no deaths. Officials said that Allegany County reported its first two cases of COVID-19 this week.
The coronavirus also has infected inmates, staff and officers. The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services has reported 17 cases at Jessup, Baltimore and Hagerstown. Among the COVID-19 infections are three inmates, eight contractual employees, four correctional officers, one parole officer and one probation officer.
In a Question & Answer session on Twitter Thursday, Hogan explained how his administration is working on multiple levels to get the equipment needed to combat the virus.
“Like every state in America, we’re working hard to try to increase the number of test kits and ventilators, along with personal protective equipment, masks and all those kinds of things,” he said. “We’re pushing at the federal level to get more of them and at the state level we’re taking unprecedented action to try and ramp these things up. We’ve made great progress but still have a long way to go.”
When Hogan announced a state of emergency on March 6, many businesses have had to temporarily close, including restaurants, retail stores and cinemas. This has led to an increase in unemployment claims, forcing the state to provide multiple outlets to file those claims.

“Unfortunately, because of this economic crisis, we’ve had, nationally and in our state, a massive uptick in the number of unemployment claims,” Hogan said. “You just can’t have that many phone calls coming in at the same time. We’ve beefed up all of our online capabilities with a new website that can handle the volume.”
Another concern brought up during the session included the renewal of driver’s licenses. The state has extended the Real ID deadline to the year 2021 and Hogan said that all license renewals will be delayed until up to 60 days after the state of emergency is lifted.
“Nothing’s going to expire,” Hogan said. “We don’t want to go wait in line at the MVA. Just relax, and when this is all over with, you’ll have plenty of time to get your license renewed.”
Since the state of emergency was declared, many grocery stores have seen their shelves emptied as Marylanders stock up on essential goods in case they can’t return to the store. Hogan urged residents to avoid excessive buying and assured them that stores will remain stocked if those measures are followed.
“People were sort of panic buying and rushing out and clearing out the shelves because they were concerned that things would run out,” he said. “But most of the shelves have been restocked, will continue to be restocked and you can help us keep those things on the shelf by just buying what you need. You can help your neighbors and others in the community by not panic buying and buying up more than you need.”
Although the best practice is to stay at home, Hogan said there are other ways to help Marylanders during this crisis.
“Donating blood to the Red Cross, volunteering to help an elderly neighbor and make sure that they get the food and the things that they need, supporting one of our volunteer organizations,” he said. “Either donating your time or money, whatever you can do to help those in need because there’s tremendous hardship out there and a lot of people that need your help.”
4 Comments
I think the press conference’s should be via satellite or in a larger area to enforce social distancing among the media as well. That can only help flatten the curve. I appreciate everything Governor Hogan is going to keep us safe, but the people reporting need to smart and safe as well. Even if it were held in an outdoor area under a big tent set up for these purposes, that would help and even with the large media pool, it could be done safer.
Gov Hogan,you are a good man doing a great job for Maryland. I know you don’t like Trump but you are more like him than you know. He is a good man too.
Thank you Gov Hogan for your delligence and perseverance for all in Maryland ! May you and your team county with good health and we will wait for good news that will come .
Good Hogan you are doing a great job. Unemployment need to be a lot more helpful in contacting people back. I just need to know how to reinstate my claim