SALISBURY, Md. — Maryland will enter Stage 2 of its Roadmap to Recovery on Friday, June 5.
Gov. Larry Hogan announced the further easing of the state's coronavirus restrictions in a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
This next step toward reopening and getting Marylanders back on their feet will lift the order closing non-essential businesses. As of Friday at 5 p.m., these are among the businesses that will now get to reopen:
- Manufacturing
- Construction
- Large and small retail shops
- Specialty vendors
- Wholesalers
- Warehouses
- Offices including information technology firms, legal offices, accounting, banking, financial institutions, insurance agencies, design studios, advertising and architectural firms
- Media production companies
- Real estate offices
- Travel agencies
- Auto dealers
- Showrooms
- Bank branches
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Personal services such as nail salons and tanning salons can also start opening at 50% capacity, by appointment only and with strict safety protocols in place.
"While we are excited to get much of our economy restarted, I want to be very clear: Just because Marylanders can return to the office doesn't mean that they should. And employees who can telework should continue teleworking whenever possible, and safety must remain a top priority for every single business in our state," Hogan said.
Stage 2 will have state government begin returning to normal operations, with the Motor Vehicle Administration and other customer-facing agencies beginning a phased reopening June 8 of select branches on a limited basis by appointment only.
Hogan said staff will be required to wear face coverings and Plexiglass dividers will be in place at every customer service station.
Transit schedules will start shifting back to normal as well, and the State Department of Education will continue its plan to reopen childcare centers so that there are spaces available for the children of parents returning to the workforce.
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"If we continue to see these really encouraging trends that we are currently experiencing, our next step — likely coinciding with the end of the school year will be to consider opening some additional outdoor amusement, fitness, sporting and other summertime activities," Hogan said.
The state entered Stage 1 on Friday, May 15. The move allowed non-essential retailers to reopen at 50% capacity along with some personal services like barber shops and hair salons.
Two weeks later, that stage came to completion when restaurants were allowed to resume outdoor dining on Friday, May 29.
There are two key metrics the governor and his coronavirus recovery team have been watching to determine when it's safe to move forward: hospitalization and ICU admission rates.
Hogan has for weeks emphasized four key building blocks for Maryland's reopening:
- Increased testing capacity
- Increased PPE supply
- Increased hospital surge capacity
- A robust contact tracing program
As of Wednesday morning, the state has conducted more than 380,000 tests, with results from 14,385 entered into the Maryland Department of Health database in the last 24 hours. Hogan said that's "well above" his short-term goal of having 10,000 tests done a day.
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Since Stage 1 started, Hogan said the state's COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped to single digits. It now stands at 9.5%, which is down nearly 65% since it peaked 48 days ago on April 17 at 26.91%.
Total hospitalizations are at their lowest level in 50 days, the governor explained, and the number of patients in intensive care continues to plateau.
“All of the success on our short-term and long-term testing strategies, which are the key building blocks, enable us to see downward trends in all of the key metrics,” he said.
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