Over the past two days, health officers from several of Maryland’s largest local jurisdictions have written a letter to the Maryland Department of Health urging tighter COVID-19 restrictions be put in place, Baltimore County has instituted a mask/face covering requirement in all public places and Baltimore City has suspended indoor dining at bars and restaurants.
Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young today signed an Executive Order suspending indoor dining at bars and restaurants in Baltimore City.
Under the Mayor’s order, restaurants and bars are permitted to continue with outdoor dining that is socially distanced, along with offering carryout and delivery services. The Mayor’s order takes effect Friday, July 24, at 5:00 pm.
At the same time, Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa issued an order mandating the usage of cloth face coverings in Baltimore City. Under the order, “all City residents over the age of 2 need to wear face coverings whenever they are in public and maintaining a social distance of at least six feet is not possible.”
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski announced yesterday, Tuesday, July 21, that Health Officer Gregory Branch has issued a new public health order requiring the use of masks for everyone over the age of 2 in all indoor public spaces. Dr. Branch also encouraged the use of face coverings in outdoor public spaces where social distancing is not possible. The new mandate goes into effect Thursday (7/23).
More details can be found on the Baltimore County website,
Also yesterday, the Health Officers from Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s Counties asked Governor Hogan to rollback reopening and resume some COVID-19 related restrictions.
As reported by The Baltimore Sun, the letter from the six local health officers was directed to Maryland Department of Health Deputy Secretary Fran Phillips:
“We are writing to share our concerns regarding the recent increase in daily cases across the state and impact of the virus over the past week,” said the letter signed by the health officers from Baltimore City and the counties of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s.
“This has been evidenced throughout many of our jurisdictions by increased daily case totals, increased rates of transmission and increasing Covid related hospitalizations and critical care usage,” it says. “We are writing to ask that the state take action to curb these trends, including revisiting the activities allowed under the current Phase 2 executive orders.”
Those orders, given last month by Gov. Larry Hogan, eased restrictions on gatherings and indoor activities such as eating in restaurants and visiting malls and recreational establishments.
When asked about reimposing restrictions on businesses again during an interview on C-Span, Governor Hogan stated “our goal would be to try to keep business open and the economy unless it’s absolutely necessary.” As reported by the Baltimore Sun,
“Our number of cases is slowly ratcheting up but our positivity is actually not, our hospitalizations are good, our ICUs are good, our death rate is down,” the governor said. “So we watch all of these on a daily basis and they all are trending in the right direction unlike in most states. But as soon as we start to see numbers that don’t look good, it’s going to cause us to take whatever actions are necessary.”
But the governor said his goal is “to try to keep the economy safely open because the economic crisis is nearly as bad — or just as bad — as the health crisis.”
The Governor and the State Superintendent of schools are scheduled to hold a press conference today at 5 p.m. Stay tuned for further updates.
