Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski and Baltimore City Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young today issued a joint statement in response to Governor Hogan’s decision to implement Phase One of Maryland’s COVID-19 recovery plan.

As previously reported on Conduit Street, Governor Hogan today announced that effective Friday, May 15 at 5:00 PM, the stay-at-home order will be lifted and manufacturing, retail, worship services, and some personal services will be allowed to resume with limitations. Governor Hogan emphasized the importance of local control and decision making in moving forward with the first stage of Maryland’s coronavirus recovery plan.

According to the joint statement:

Our top priority is to protect the health and well-being of our people.  As Governor Hogan has acknowledged, there is not a statewide, one-size fits all approach to achieving that goal, and just four jurisdictions have 72 percent of the state’s COVID-19 cases. Baltimore City and Baltimore County are two of those jurisdictions.  A flexible, community-based approach is necessary to empower individual jurisdictions to make decisions regarding timing of Phase One re-openings.

For the Baltimore region to safely move into all of Phase One, we need more access to personal protective equipment, as well as increased testing capacity and more robust contact tracing. We’ve seen some progress in each of these areas, but we have to do even more.

We are taking a close look at the specific actions announced today, and we will determine our next steps in the next 24 hours. We acknowledge that this will not be welcome news to all of our residents. Individuals and businesses continue to make real sacrifices, and those sacrifices are preventing the spread of a deadly virus. However, rushing to reopen in our large, densely populated jurisdictions jeopardizes the lives of our neighbors and loved ones.

As we work towards re-opening as soon and as safely as we can, we continue to urge residents to stay at home, wear a mask in public spaces and to remain socially-distanced if they go out. We will continue to be there for each other, and we will get through this together.

Stay tuned to Conduit Street for more information.

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