Gov. Hogan’s plan offers hope to resume live racing soon

The “Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery” plan released April 24 by Gov. Larry Hogan outlines four building blocks and coronavirus (COVID-19) benchmarks that must be met before a three-stage reopening of businesses and restart of activities can begin, and the governor indicated he’s hopeful that can occur in early May.

The building blocks are procuring a sufficient amount of personal protective equipment for frontline healthcare workers, generating hospital surge capacity, having adequate testing capacity and having a robust contact-tracing program, according to the 30-page document. The building blocks work in conjunction with guidelines from the White House Coronavirus Task Force that state a 14-day downward trajectory of the metrics, or at least a plateauing, is required before recovery can move forward.

The key metrics in Maryland, Hogan said, are the rate of hospitalization and the number of patients admitted to intensive care units.