ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Hogan, today declared a 30-day state of emergency to take urgent short-term actions to combat the current COVID-19 surge. We are also mobilizing 1,000 members of the Maryland National Guard to assist state and local health officials with the state’s emergency pandemic response.
Our newest projections today show that COVID-19 hospitalizations could reach more than 5,000, which is more than 250% higher than the previous peak of 1,952. While we are hoping for the best, we are actively preparing for the worst.
To assist hospitals and nursing homes in addressing staffing shortages, I have enacted an executive order to authorize Maryland’s health secretary with the power to regulate hospital personnel, bed space, and supplies, as well as an executive order to further augment our EMS workforce.
Members of the Maryland National Guard will be deployed to support COVID-19 testing sites across the state. They will also assist with opening another 20 testing sites outside hospitals in order to meet the rapidly rising demand for testing and to divert people away from visiting hospital emergency rooms just to get COVID-19 tests.
Following the latest action from the FDA, the State of Maryland is now able to provide COVID-19 booster shots for children between the ages of 12 and 15. Marylanders are also now eligible to get a booster five months after completing their primary doses of the Pfizer vaccine instead of having to wait until six months after being vaccinated.
I’m also calling on the Biden administration to take immediate actions to increase the distribution of monoclonal antibodies, to expedite the approval of additional rapid tests, and to expedite production and allocation of the new COVID-19 antiviral pills, which were recently authorized by the FDA.
The truth is that the next four to six weeks will be the most challenging of the entire pandemic. All of the emergency actions we are taking today are to keep our hospitals from overflowing, to keep our kids in school, and to keep Maryland open for business, and we will continue to take whatever actions are necessary in the very difficult days and weeks ahead.