Stage One | Effective May 15 at 5 PM
- The Stay at Home Order will be lifted and replaced by a Safer at Home public health advisory.
- Retail stores and some personal services will reopen with limited capacity and strong safety precautions.
- Houses of worship can resume services with safety measure; outdoor services are strongly encouraged.
- Marylanders must continue to practice physical distancing and wear masks in indoor public areas.
As Maryland continues preparations to begin Stage One of the ‘Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery,’ Governor Larry Hogan announced the resumption of elective medical procedures and the broadening of permitted outdoor activities under the state’s Stay at Home order. These directives have the unanimous support of the Maryland Coronavirus Recovery Team, including leading doctors and public health experts.
EXPANDED TESTING CAPACITY
Maryland has successfully expanded our testing capability by over 5,000 percent in the past month. In addition to the ongoing acquisition of tens of thousands of tests and the creation of drive-thru testing sites throughout the state, on April 20, Maryland received a payload of LabGun COVID-19 test kits from South Korea that will give Maryland the capability of performing half a million coronavirus tests.
STATUS: ON TRACK
INCREASED HOSPITAL SURGE CAPACITY
On March 16, Governor Hogan directed the Maryland Department of Health to develop a plan to immediately increase the state’s hospital capacity by an additional 6,000 beds. Thanks to the quick response and close collaboration between multiple state agencies, federal partners, and Maryland’s health care systems, the state is on track to exceed that goal and reach a surge capacity of more than 6,700 beds.
STATUS: AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
RAMPING UP SUPPLY OF PPE
In Maryland, a multi-agency task force has been working around the clock to ramp up our supply of personal protective equipment (PPE), with large deliveries of N95, KN95, and surgical masks; beds and bed packages; face shields; gloves; and other critical resources coming into the state’s warehouses on a daily basis.
STATUS: ON TRACK
ROBUST CONTACT TRACING OPERATION
On April 22, Governor Hogan authorized a contract with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) which will quadruple the state’s present disease investigation capability to contact up to 1,000 new cases per day, in conjunction with a new, state-of-the-art contact tracing platform called ‘COVID Link.’
STATUS: ON TRACK