Even as Maryland’s COVID-19 hospitalizations drop to their lowest level in 83 days and the statewide positivity rate hits a new low, Governor Hogan is stressing vigilance, urging “all Marylanders to get tested, wear a mask, and practice physical distancing.”
While the country saw a record number of new COVID-19 cases yesterday, the Maryland Department of Health launched a new campaign to promote wearing masks. Meanwhile, Maryland has now opened nearly 200 testing sites across the state.
Governor Hogan is adopting a similar approach towards the economic recovery. While Maryland’s unemployment rate remains well-below the national average, Governor Hogan is continuing to take the lead on advocating on behalf of the nation’s governors for Congress to take aggressive action for the economic recovery, holding a virtual summit with a bipartisan group of governors this week to help lay the foundation for a national infrastructure plan.
According to recent reports from Pew and Moody’s Analytics, state and local governments have already shed 1.5 million workers since March and will be forced to lay off another 4 million workers “without several hundred billion dollars in budget relief.” As Governor Hogan wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed, “we will overcome this virus and get our economy back on track. But it’s going to take the full might of the American people — mobilizing every part of our economic engine — to do it.”