Coronavirus Latest: Marylanders Will Still Have To Wear Face Coverings, Social Distance In Public When 'Stay At Home' Order Is Lifted
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- Gov. Larry Hogan announced Friday that he hopes to lift the stay at home orders sometime in May as long as the numbers or hospitalizations of coronavirus cases begin a downward trend.
Hogan and Johns Hopkins Dr. Tom Inglesby, however, stressed that this will be a "gradual path" to recovery and certain measures will need to be kept in place to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Coronavirus Latest: Gov. Larry Hogan Hopes To Lift 'Stay At Home' Order In May
Inglesby added that it will be critical for the public to know that its own individual efforts will still be very important.
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"Taken together all of our collective actions and decisions will either slow this virus down, or they will speed up the spread," he said. "So we're going to need to keep wearing cloth masks in public. We're going to need to keep our physical space of six feet or more."
Inglesby said that the coronavirus will be in the State of Maryland and U.S. until there is a vaccine and population gains immunity.
"When reopening does happen, it will be important for people to understand the settings and work that are lower risk versus more high risk," Inglesby said. "Outdoors will be safer than indoors, less social interactions will be better than more social interactions, and closer contact and high density will be higher risk than low density. Workplaces can take mitigation measures to lower their own risks, and they should be planning on those now."
Inglesby said that all these measures will make a big difference when added together collectively, and that Gov. Hogan's plan for recovery is the correct form of action.
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.
