Coronavirus Latest: Ending All Restrictions On Hospital, Nursing Homes Visits May Not Happen In Short Term, Hogan Says
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- Fully easing restrictions on nursing home and hospital visits is one of the last steps that would be undertaken as part of Gov. Larry Hogan's plan to reopen the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Under the "Road To Recovery" plan Hogan announced Friday, lessening restrictions on visits is considered "high risk" and would be implemented under the third and final stage of the reopening process. The plan said "there is no realistic timeline yet" for reaching that level of reopening, which also includes things like large religious and social gatherings and high-capacity restaurants and bars.
Nursing homes have been hit hard by COVID-19, with dozens of deaths and hundreds of cases tied to facilities across the state.
One of the hardest-hit nursing homes is the Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mount Airy, where as of Monday there have been 26 deaths from the virus. Eighty-two residents and 39 staff members tested positive.
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At a news conference during which Hogan announced the reopening plan, he said nursing homes remain one of the "biggest... parts of concern":
"That's also why that's where we're focusing our testing, that's where we've put these strike teams. That's where we have these federal teams that are coming in to assist us, and nursing homes continues to be a place where we're concerned about the outbreak, but... we're not watching different numbers in nursing homes because they're calculated into the increased numbers of cases numbers of hospitalizations, number of ICU (cases) and number of deaths and unfortunately they're a high percentage of all of those."
Earlier this month, Hogan announced the creation of "strike teams" made up of members of the Maryland National Guard, local and state health departments, Maryland Institute of Medical Service Systems and state hospital systems to provide extra supplies and care to residents of nursing homes that have seen large numbers of cases of COVID-19.
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.
