Posted on 02/12/21
| News Source: Pikesville Patch
MARYLAND — With coronavirus-related hospitalizations and positivity rates trending down, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced some easing of restrictions across the state, including at hospitals and nursing homes. He also reported an investment toward the reopening of schools, including a commitment to provide an unlimited supply of personal protective equipment.
"We are pushing back against this invisible enemy, and we're making great progress," Hogan said Thursday, noting hospitalizations were the lowest since Nov. 22.
"We have seen significant improvements in all of our key statewide COVID-19 metrics," the governor said. Over the last four weeks, he said the positivity rate dropped by more than 46 percent to 5.08 percent, which is the lowest since Nov. 8.
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In the last six weeks, Hogan said the state has also been "rapidly accelerating" its distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Maryland has administered 785,170 vaccines to the 2.1 million Marylanders who are currently eligible over the past six weeks," Hogan said at a news conference in Annapolis Thursday, Feb. 11.
The rate of vaccines administered has increased from 3,000 to more than 26,200 a day, the governor reported. Even so, he said there were not enough to go around to all those eligible.
"We need more damn vaccines," Hogan said, noting vaccinations were being administered at a rate that was "more than double the current supply that we are being given."
Two mass vaccination sites opened Feb. 5 — at Six Flags America in Prince George's County and the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore City — and more are on the horizon.
"We have built an infrastructure that is able to administer anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 shots per day as soon as they're made by the manufacturers and allocated to us by the federal government," Hogan said. "At this point, we are simply waiting every week for more vaccines to arrive."
Maryland is "continuing to broaden the distribution network to ensure as many points of access as possible," Hogan said. Read more at Patch