Md. Governor Larry Hogan gives update on COVID-19

MARYLAND – Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced Thursday that the Maryland Department of Health will now allow limited visitation at hospitals and nursing homes under safety guidelines. He also also announced the launch of a statewide school testing program with the goal of 1 million tests for schools. It’s a free and voluntary program, and schools will be surveyed and have to opt in.

Plus, Gov. Hogan says state health officials will now have to update county health officials a month ahead of time on how many doses they will be getting. County health departments are also being called on by the governor to send one representative to work on a task force with the Maryland National Guard to make sure each county is providing equitable access to the vaccines. “Unfortunately, we have no control whatsoever over this supply problem. Only the federal government can buy the vaccines, and only the federal government can send us the vaccines,” said Gov. Hogan.

The governor says the state is working with an extremely limited supply of vaccines. Gov. Hogan says because of this, the state has to make do with what resources it has to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. “What we can do, and what we are doing every single day, is rapidly scaling up the infrastructure to utilize every single dose that we are allocated, and to vaccinate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible,” s aid Gov. Hogan.

Another announcement was that mass vaccination events will be coming to the Eastern Shore sometime in March. Folks can sign up for updates on appointments at mass vaccination sites by texting MDREADY 898-211.