As part of a 30-day state of emergency, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has called in the National Guard to assist local and state health officials at vaccination and testing sites.
Gov. Hogan also authorized the Department of Health to increase staffing at overcrowded hospitals.
According to The Seattle Times, in Maryland, Hogan has predicted that the state will experience its “most challenging” phase of the pandemic in four to six weeks.
Models show that hospitals could suffer a 250% increase in hospitalizations due to the increase in patients.
“With this new surge of omicron it’s important for Marylanders to go back to using common sense and doing the things that will keep us safe: avoiding crowds, keeping your distance, washing your hands, and yes, once again, wearing the damn masks,” Hogan announced.
State health officials announced on Tuesday that 3,057 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19, a record since the pandemic began. Over the last seven weeks, there has been a 500% increase in the number of patients hospitalized, according to Hogan.
As soon as hospitals reached 2,000 patients with COVID-19, Maryland implemented pandemic surge plans, which included moving patients from overcrowded hospitals to hospitals that could accommodate them and canceling non-urgent elective surgery.
Hogan said one of his primary focuses has been preventing deaths and keeping people out of hospitals.
In response to a question about imposing a statewide mask mandate, Gov. Hogan said he had no plans to do so due to it’s difficulty in enforcing.
Meanwhile, Republican Hogan has been criticized for taking additional action to deal with the surge in the state for weeks.
His latest steps were driven by the fact that the models are “dramatically different” from what they were previously.
