1) Governor Hogan is holding a press conference outside of the reopened Laurel Medical Center. He is joined by @CEXAlsobrooks.

I will thread the governor’s announcements and new actions. https://twitter.com/GovLarryHogan/status/1253036599849488393

2) The governor begins with the latest numbers – Maryland has 14,775 confirmed #COVID19 cases, 1,432 current hospitalizations, and 631 deaths. We have now surpassed 27,000 cases in the National Capital Region.

3) LAUREL MEDICAL CENTER. The reopening of this renovated facility will provide an additional 135 beds, including 35 intensive care beds, to treat patients infected with #COVID19. It is being staffed by nearly 400 contractual medical professionals and managed by UMMS.

4) ROADMAP TO RECOVERY. The governor will introduce recovery plan on Friday. Was developed in consultation with doctors and public health experts. Will be a safe, effective, and gradual plan to allow the state to reopen, to rebuild, and to recover as soon as it is safe to do so.

4a) FOUR BUILDING BLOCKS. The governor’s recovery plan has 4 components that must be solidly in place before lifting any restrictions:
-expanded testing
-increased hospital surge capacity
-increased supply of PPE
-robust contact tracing operation

5) TESTING. Maryland’s testing capability has expanded by over 5,000% in the past month. State has completed more than 76,000 tests to date. Prince George’s County was site of MD's first #COVID19 drive-thru screening location.

5a) Last week, the state secured 40,000 additional tests. Maryland invested $2.5 million to help UMB build their capacity to handle up to 20,000 tests per day. ‘Operation Enduring Friendship’ will allow Maryland to perform additional 500,000 tests.

5b) Earlier this week, received an offer from the President and Vice President to allow Maryland to access federal labs. Governor Hogan: “We are looking forward to moving forward on this important federal-state collaboration.”

6) HOSPITAL SURGE CAPACITY. 250-bed field hospital at the Baltimore Convention Center is completed and staffed, and will be admitting patients who no longer require hospitalization but need a location to complete their care and fully recover.

6a) In Prince George’s County, opened the first beds at Adventist Ft. Washington Medical Center and adding additional beds to UM Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly.

6b) Constructing 22 surge response tents across the state. 100 additional beds at Jessup and Hagerstown to address the needs of corrections and detention centers.

6c) ***Maryland is on track to not only reach, but to exceed our goal of 6,000 additional beds by reaching a surge capacity of more than 6,700 beds in the coming weeks.

7) PPE. A multi-agency task force has been working around the clock with large deliveries coming into our warehouses on a daily basis. Acquisitions include 5.9 million surgical masks, 1.5 million KN95 masks, 2.3 million surgical gowns, and 1.1 million face shields.

8) CONTACT TRACING. This morning, the State of Maryland authorized a contract with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) to quadruple our present disease investigation capability in order to contact up to 1,000 new cases per day.

8a) Governor Hogan announces the launch of a state-of-the-art contact tracing platform called ‘COVID Link’ which will assist in monitoring and collecting information about people who test positive.

8b) ‘COVID Link’ will utilize medical data from the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP). MD's 1,000 contact tracers will be trained to make sure all info is collected in accordance with regulations for the security and privacy of medical data.

8c) Governor Hogan thanks @GovRaimondo and @MayorAdler, who consulted with Maryland and shared best practices on the ‘COVID Link’ initiative.

9) Governor Hogan: “With these crucial components now firmly in place, on Friday we will be introducing our ‘Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery’ which will lead us safely out of this pandemic and into a brighter, more hopeful future.”