|
PRESS RELEASE
Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young Extends Baltimore City Stay At Home Order, Announces Criteria for Beginning Reopening
Mayor Young emphasizes need for expanding testing capacity, reaching other metrics before reopening in order to save lives
BALTIMORE, MD. — Today, Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young announced an extension of Baltimore City’s Stay at Home order, in order to allow more time for key benchmarks to be reached in the City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Young issued the following statement:
“In close consultation with public health experts, I am extending the Stay At Home order for Baltimore City,” Mayor Young said. “As I have said from the beginning of this state of emergency, we are going to follow the data and listen to what our public health experts are telling us – and right now, they are saying it is still too soon to reopen.”
Mayor Young’s Stay At Home order will extend the requirement that residents remain in their homes unless performing essential jobs or tasks.
Among other metrics, Mayor Young highlighted the need to significantly increase testing capacity in order to meet guidelines established by public health experts. Based on Baltimore City’s population, World Health Organization guidance would indicate roughly 2700-2800 tests should be completed per day.
Daily testing volume changes on a weekly basis, with less testing occurring on weekends. For the weekly cycle from April 27 through May 3, an average of 486 tests per day were conducted among City residents. For the weekly cycle from May 4 through May 10 – the most recent full cycle – the average number of tests conducted per day was 571. To date, all testing resources have come from the Baltimore City Health Department and our local hospitals.
“While we are continuing to work with the State to expand testing capacity, the simple truth is that we need more tests to safely reopen,” Mayor Young said. “Without more testing capacity, it would be irresponsible to begin the reopening process.”
As part of the review process for reopening, Mayor Young announced the following criteria would be taken into account, developed in close consultation with the Baltimore City Health Department and Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa:
- Sustained decrease of community deaths
- Sustained decrease in new COVID-19 cases in the community
- Adequate community testing for symptomatic individuals and frontline/essential workers
- Sustained, robust contact tracing system in place
“While I am confident in the progress we are making toward achieving these benchmarks, we still have work to do in order to safely and responsibly reopen,” Mayor Young said. “I am asking our residents to continue keeping themselves, their families, their friends, and their neighbors safe and healthy by remaining home at this time, to give our frontline staff and health care workers the ability to save lives.”
With the stay at home order remaining in effect, the following activities statuses remain for all residents:
-
Unaffected
- Going to the grocery store
- Going to the pharmacy
- Travel for health treatment for yourself, a family member, or a pet
- Traveling to work (essential personnel)
-
Modified
- Travel to work (non-essential personnel) – individuals may travel to their non-essential business to maintain property and conduct minimal operations
- Travel for certain preventive and screening health-related services for yourself, a family member or a pet. Residents are encouraged to use their best judgment in scheduling preventive health care appointments
- Outdoor exercise – individual outdoor exercise while practicing social distancing is permitted, however group fitness classes are unallowable
- In-person religious services – in-person religious services may only be offered in parking areas with attendees remaining inside their appropriately spaced vehicles
- Restaurants and bars – carry out and delivery service is allowed. In-facility service is not allowed
-
Suspended
- Gatherings larger than 10 persons
- Programming at Senior Centers
- Fitness Centers
- Theaters
- Enclosed Malls
- Recreational Establishments
|
