Governor Larry Hogan has directed the state health department to immediately take actions to provide further demographic breakdowns of all Maryland case data, including hospitalization rates and mortality.
Hogan says he wants the agency to be as proactive as possible with this. "I have directed them to publish everything this is availble to us with respect to racial and ethnic demographic breakdowns on coronavirus cases, with instructions to update as new data becomes available," said Hogan. "However, I want to caution that 90% of the testing is being done by doctors and hospitals-- who are sending the tests to privates outside of the state which have not been keeping such data, and so we do anticipate having significant gaps in the initial data that will be available to us."
The Maryland Department of Health is reporting 4,371 COVID-19 cases in the state. That's 326 more cases since yesterday. Baltimore City had 459 cases and nine deaths. Baltimore County reported 652 cases with eleven deaths. There are now 103 deaths across the state and over 25-hundred people have tested negative for COVID-19.
Hogan's announcement came on the heels of a push from a letters signed by 80 state lawmakers, including State Delegate Nick Mosby, calling on the governor to include racial and ethnic data in the daily COVID-19 public updates. Mosby says early access to the racial data could help authorities find disparities early in the crisis. Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott introduced a bill that would require the City's Health Commissioner to report a coronavirus patient's race and zip code. He says the city has to make sure the data is being tracked and made public to ensure that resources are brought to the communities where they're needed.
After touring the Baltimore Convention Center Tuesday, now a converted field hospital, Governor Hogan made other announcements, including:
Strike teams that will to help provide support to overburdened nursing home facilities; composed of National Guard, representatives from local and state health departments and hospital systems; will aid in testing and triage (among the first in the nation to do this)
Issued a new executive order empowering local health departments to take action against any businesses, establishments, and construction sites they deem unsafe. Can modify operations, or shut the facility down altogether
Successful in “convincing the Trump Administration in designating the greater Baltimore-Washington corridor as a priority. 12 Maryland jurisdictions are considered "hotspots," which demand urgent federal attention. Five million residents live in the corridor which is home hu8ndred of thousands of federal workers, and such federal agencies including the NSA, NIH, FDA, and U.S. Cyber Command others critical in the fight