State Roundup: Hogan has tighter benchmarks to reopen economy than the White House

HOGAN’S ROADMAP TO RECOVERY: Gov. Larry Hogan’s “roadmap to recovery” looks like this: 14 consecutive days of declines in the number of deaths, new hospitalizations for COVID-19 and new intensive care unit patients — a tighter set of benchmarks than those set by the White House, which is focused on declines in known infections, Antonio Olivo writes in the Washington Post.

• Hogan has been under pressure to reboot Maryland’s economy while simultaneously battling the pandemic. A protest on Saturday drew scores to Annapolis, clogging the roads near the State House for several hours, Bryan Sears of the Daily Record reports.

DISABILITIES ADVOCATES PETITION HOGAN: A coalition of advocates for Marylanders with disabilities petitioned Gov. Larry Hogan to give medical providers clear direction that access to treatment, ventilators and hospital beds should not depend on a person’s abilities if health care providers need to triage patients for scarce resources during the coronavirus pandemic, Yvonne Wenger of the Baltimore Sun reports.

HOGAN THANKS TRUMP FOR LAB USE: Gov. Larry Hogan Tuesday wrote President Donald Trump to accept an offer that would allow Maryland to utilize federal labs in the state for COVID-19 testing. The letter comes less than a day after Trump criticized Hogan for securing testing kits from South Korea that would allow for 500,000 residents to eventually be tested for the illness that has killed more than 500 people in the state and wreaked havoc on local and national economies.

MARYLAND CASES HIT 14,206: The number of known coronavirus cases in the District, Maryland and Virginia was 26,969 on Wednesday morning, with 14,206 cases in Maryland, 9,661 in Virginia and 3,102 in the District. The number of virus-related deaths was 659 in Maryland, 327 in Virginia and 112 in the District, for a total of 1,098 fatalities, Dana Hedgpeth reports in the Post.

• Maryland saw a single-day high in new deaths related to the coronavirus Tuesday as Gov. Larry Hogan pointed to the growing case count as evidence the state is not ready to reopen, Nathan Ruiz reports in the Sun.
• Frederick County deaths from COVID-19 increased by 11, the highest the county has seen, as the state saw its deadliest 24 hours during the COVID-19 pandemic, Heather Mongilio of the Frederick News-Post reports.
• Eva F. Anderson, a cellist who performed with the BSO for more than three decades and was also a keyboardist and music teacher, died of the coronavirus April 13 at Sun Valley Assisted Living in Westminster. The former longtime Pasadena resident was 89, Fred Rasmussen of the Sun reports.

STATE MUM ON NURSING HOME DATA: Maryland health officials have never provided a full list of the nursing homes where outbreaks of the infectious new contagion have been confirmed, even to the administrators and staff working to protect elderly and infirm residents. That is despite signs the virus is reaching vulnerable populations through unwitting staff members, many of whom work in multiple nursing homes, Scott Dance of the Sun reports.

• The number of cases of the coronavirus among long-term care facilities rose again Tuesday, Carroll County announced, though the county has also decreased the amount of data it is sharing. The county now has 339 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and 211 of those have been at long-term care facilities, Brian Compere reports in the Carroll County Times.

REMOTE MEETINGS FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY? Bruce DePuyt of Maryland Matters writes that the COVID-19 crisis has led leaders of the Maryland General Assembly to begin discussions about potential changes to their meeting and voting procedures.

OPINION: VOTE BY MAIL: Sen. Cheryl Kagan, in a column for Maryland Matters, goes through the voting procedures that Gov. Larry Hogan approved for the June 2 primary election, which will mean that most Marylanders will vote from home. The Board of Elections did allow between one and four Election Day voting locations in each jurisdiction to accommodate Marylanders with disabilities; those who need to replace a lost ballot; or people who are registering to vote.

STEELE SLAMS TRUMP: Former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee chairman, slammed President Donald Trump for having tweeted that he will issue an executive order temporarily suspending immigration to the U.S. because of the coronavirus crisis, reports Bryan Renbaum for MarylandReporter.

• Steele, who may turn out to be one of the president’s harshest Republican critics, also spent more than 30 minutes on Jonathan Capehart’s podcast for the Post talking about his views of this presidency. He says, “America has been abused by this president.”

RETAILERS SEEK MORE USE OF CURBSIDE PICKUP: Maryland retailers who were forced to close last month because they were deemed “non-essential” have seen a crushing drop in sales since restrictions on commerce were issued. Now, they are begging the Hogan administration to allow greater use of curbside pickup, Bruce DePuyt writes for Maryland Matters.

UMMS TELLS DOCS TO SAVE PPE FOR COVID CASES: The University of Maryland Medical System has sent a memo telling medical providers to preserve their protective equipment for COVID-19 cases and not to use it in treating some patients with potentially dangerous infections such as MRSA. The 13-hospital system isn’t alone in taking this or other such rationing steps, Meredith Cohn of the Sun reports.

COLLEGES BRACE FOR BUDGET DEFICITS: “Maryland’s public universities have been forced to adapt to one sudden change by shifting their learning online, but they face another looming challenge from the COVID-19 pandemic as the state expects to enact significant budget deficits,” Tim Curtis of the Daily Record reports.

HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES LOSE TIME: High school athletes who are supposed to be heading to college are losing vital time during the pandemic, according to a Capital News Service story in MarylandReporter.

SECOND ROUND OF PPP FUNDS: Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen said Tuesday that a second round of funding for the Paycheck Protection Program will help businesses unable to secure loans before the previous funding dried up and that more stimulus measures are expected as the nation battles the COVID-19 pandemic, Adam Bednar reports for the Daily Record.

B’MORE OPENS 2^nd TESTING SITE: Baltimore has opened a second coronavirus testing site in the Rawlings Conservatory at Druid Hill Park, Mayor Jack Young announced Tuesday. Emily Opilo writes in the Sun that the site, which is being operated in cooperation with the Maryland National Guard, began offering tests Tuesday.

DEL. COX CRITICIZES HOGAN ACTIONS: Del. Dan Cox (R-Frederick and Carroll) sent the letter to Hogan earlier this month, claiming the governor had suspended the Bill of Rights and that requiring individuals to wear “face coverings” when entering essential businesses was power not granted to him during a public health crisis, Steve Bohnel of the Frederick News-Post reports. But many scholars disagree with Cox.

OPINION: IN DEFENSE OF FRANCHOT’S AIDE: The editorial board of the Sun opines that, “We never expected to find ourselves defending a social media post from Len Foxwell, chief of staff for Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot. After all, we’ve been the subject of them in the past. But calls for his firing from the Maryland Republican Party, after he posted on Facebook last week about people defying coronavirus safety measures, have stirred our concern.”

PANTS ARE NOT OPTIONAL: Pants are not optional during the pandemic. That’s the word from Gov. Larry Hogan, who during a moment of levity on ABC’s “The View,” was asked about a recent humorous post on social media from the Taneytown Police Department, Bryan Sears writes for the Daily Record.