Governor Hogan Announcement – Banning Any Gatherings of 250 or Over

Hogan Enacted Executive Order to Activate National Guard

WTOP news reported the below: For the full article with video of Gov. Hogan’s press conference click here

Maryland is closing all public schools in the state from March 16 through March 27 in order to slow the spread of the growing coronavirus outbreak.

That’s one of several “major actions” being taken in the state. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan says he is banning all public gatherings of 250 people, activating the National Guard, ordering all nonessential state government employees to work from home and closing the Port of Baltimore to passenger cruise ships.

“This is a public health emergency,” Deputy Health Secretary Fran Phillips said. The governor’s announcement came after officials announced the first known case in of a patient being infected with coronavirus through what’s known as community transmission.

A Prince George’s County man in his 60s who tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, had no known international travel or contacts with another infected individual, officials said Thursday. The man is currently hospitalized.

The steps announced by the governor will be “disruptive to your everyday lives,” the governor said.

With community spread of the disease, Hogan said he expects the number of new cases to “dramatically and rapidly rise.”

He added: “For Marylanders, the actions that I have announced here today will be disruptive to your everyday lives. And they may sound extreme, and they may sound frightening. But they could be the difference in saving lives and helping keep people safe.”