Excerpts below from the WBALTV.com article ‘Maryland schools closed for rest of academic year; stay-home order amended‘ (May 6, 2020).

Gov. Larry Hogan said if the coronavirus numbers continue to trend downward, Maryland could start to begin easing restrictions, but schools will remain closed through the rest of the academic year.

The headline of Wednesday’s [May 6, 2020] announcements was one big closure tempered with a flurry of other openings.

“All of this is predicated on people taking personal responsibility and following the public health guidelines, maintaining social distancing, we’re still encouraging people to, where possible, to wear masks, to avoid crowds of more than 10 people congregating together, staying 6 feet apart,” Hogan said.

The governor outlined on Wednesday the state’s progress on the number of hospitalizations and the numbers of people in intensive care units.

“Over the past seven days we have seen a good trend in hospitalizations with five-straight days downward and then a little bump up yesterday, but overall, we are down slightly from where we were a week ago,” Hogan said. “Even more encouraging is that our ICU numbers have been basically flat, level at a plateau for eight-straight days. If these trends continue into next week, we will be ready to lift the stay-at-home order and to begin stage one of our recovery plan. … That would mean the reopening of certain types of businesses and lower-risk community, religious and quality-of-life activities.”