Gov. Hogan: Maryland is not ready to begin reopening
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan weighs in on White House guidelines to reopen the economy in phases.
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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan appeared on "Bill Hemmer Reports" Friday and said that, according to the White House's coronavirus guidelines to reopen the economy in phases, his state is not quite ready.
"The president's plan says that no one should consider beginning to start any of the phase one actions until they have 14 straight days of declining numbers," Hogan said. "With respect to their hospitalizations and deaths and ICUs, we have increasing numbers in every one of those categories because we're in one of the emerging hot spots here in the Washington-Baltimore corridor."
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"So according to the president's own team and the president's own report, we're not in a position yet to get started," Hogan added.
The governor said he wants to reopen the economy safely and that there are still some benchmarks his state needs to hit before they can continue.
"I'm a lifelong small business guy. There's nothing more important to me than getting our economy back, getting people to work," Hogan said. "We also have to make sure we're following the advice from our federal partners on making sure that we've got things flattening out and going down rather than going up."
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The governor also addressed planned protests in Annapolis, saying he's frustrated, as well.
"[The president's] own plan says we shouldn't open it up yet in our state or in some of the hot spots. You know, [in the] Washington area, we've doubled over the past week [sic]," Hogan said. "And so as soon as we can, we're gonna get open safely. But I understand everybody's right to protest. I understand their frustration."
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