     GOVERNOR HOGAN:  Good
afternoon.  Joining me is
Secretary Kelly Schulz of the
Maryland Department of Commerce.
Good afternoon, everybody. 
Today the state Board of
Education voted to require
school systems that have not
developed a plan for returning
any students for any in-person
instruction until 2021 to go
back and reevaluate their
reopening plans by the end of
the first quarter.  Last week,
as a result of our dramatically
improved health metrics, we
announced that every county
school system in Maryland was
authorized to begin the process
of safely reopening.  We made
clear that the legal authority
and the final decision making on
these safe openings rests with
the county boards of education. 
Back in May, Dr. Karen Salmon
and the Maryland State
Department of Education
published their recovery plan
for education and began meeting
with county boards of ed, local
school superintendents,
teachers, parents, and other key
stakeholders to collaborate on
safe and effective recovery
plans for all of our Maryland
public schools.  Local school
systems were required to have
these recovery plans completed,
posted on their websites, and
submitted to the state two weeks
ago on August 14th.  The state
Board of Education met last
week, August 24th, to carefully
review those plans.  In
response, in less than 48 hours,
we held our press conference and
announced at the request of some
of those local school boards a
new set of statewide guidelines
and metrics.  16 of the
jurisdictions, two-thirds of our
county school systems, did
develop and submit plans which
did include returning children
to the schools for some
in-person instruction this fall.
8 counties did not submit any
reopening plans that even
attempted to bring any kids into
any classrooms for the entire
year.  I want to thank the state
Board of Education for their
vote today, which calls on those
counties to at least go back and
reevaluate their modes of
instruction before the end of
the year.  There was also some
confusion yesterday, here in AA
County, about allowing kids to
play youth sports.  The County
Executive apparently tried to
pass the buck on youth sports,
but let me make it very clear: 
81 days ago, on June 12th, the
state of Maryland, through the
Maryland Department of Health,
issued an order allowing for all
youth sports in Maryland to
resume.  County governments of
course by law do have the power
to be more restrictive than the
state, but it is the position of
the state of Maryland that our
young people should have the
opportunity to play sport
there's fall, and we are
encouraging local health
officials to reassess their
guidelines.
.  I want to just
provide a brief update on the
upcoming general election. 
State Board of Elections has
informed us that as of today,
they have mailed out the
absentee ballot applications to
every Maryland soater.  This is
something that I asked them to
do immediately eight weeks ago. 
We continue to strongly
encourage Marylanders to take
advantage of voting by absentee
ballot or to participate in
early voting.  And for those who
really want to vote in person on
election day, we strongly
encourage them to do so at off
peak times to avoid crowds and
long lines at the polling 
places:
Although local election
boards repeatedly said that it
would be impossible to get poll
workers and poll judges, through
our efforts, the efforts of our
administration, we have already
recruited more than 11,000
Marylanders to serve as election
judges, and we are continuing to
urge local election boards to
immediately contact them and
train these election judges and
poll workers
.  I'm pleased to
report that our early and
aggressive mitigation efforts to
fight COVID-19 have been
extremely successful, and that
we have continued to see
declining numbers in all of our
key health metrics.  Our
statewide positivity rate is now
down to
3.39 percent, a decline
since it peaked at 26.9 percent
on April 17th.  Maryland's
positivity rate has now been
under 5 percent, which is the
benchmark set by the World
Health Organization and the CDC,
for 68 consecutive days, since
June 25th.  And it has been
under 4 percent for 24
consecutive days since August 8.
15 of our 24 jurisdictions now
have positivity rates below
3.5 percent.  Hospitalizations
are down more than 77 percent
since they peaked 122 days ago
at 1,711.  And we have seen
nearly 30 percent decline in ICU
levels since July 25th.  And we
have seen a continued and
sustained drop in the cases per
100,000, which is an additional
metric now being utilized by
Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and the
coronavirus task force.  In just
the last month alone, our
statewide case rate per 100,000
has dropped by 45 percent.  We
continue to be in much better
shape than the nation, and
better than most states across
the country.  And while it is
absolutely critical to remain
vigilant as we battle this
deadly virus, it is also
important that we continue to
fight to protect and improve our
economy and the health of our
small business community and our
struggling Maryland families by
continuing to push to safely
reopen our economy and to get
more people safely back to work.
Unlike many states across the
country, we were able to keep
more than 70 percent of our
economy open throughout the
entire crisis, and we have had
more than 98 percent of our
economy open since we completed
all stage 2 reopenings 74 days
ago on June 19th.  And today, I
am pleased to announce that we
are able to enter stage 3 of our
Maryland Strong: Roadmap to
Recovery.  Effective this
Friday, September 4, at 5:00
p.m., all Maryland businesses
will be able to open.  Movie
theaters and live entertainment
venues will be able to begin
safely opening at 50 percent
capacity or up to 100 people at
indoor venues, or 250 people at
outdoor venues, both with
appropriate health and safety
guidelines in place.  In
addition, all retail stores as
well as churches and houses of
worship will be able to increase
capacity from 50 percent to
75 percent.  As we begin to move
into stage 3, the law still
empowers individual counties to
make decisions that are more
restrictive regarding the timing
of stage 3 reopenings in their
own individual jurisdictions.  I
want to remind the people of
Maryland that moving into stage
3 does not mean that this crisis
is behind us and remind them
that we must remain vigilant so
that we can keep Maryland open
for business.  As we head into
the holiday weekend, I want to
wish everybody a great holiday,
and I hope that everyone enjoys
some time with their family and
friends, but I want to remind
them again of something we
brought up maybe a month or so
ago, and it just came up again
with our most recent findings of
our contact tracing efforts. 
The number one activity of those
who have tested positive since
mid-July reported by 41 percent
of all those who are interviewed
by contact tracers, was
attending family gatherings. 
You know, you hear about things
and you think it's maybe
dangerous to go to a restaurant
or a bar or some business, but,
in fact, the number one thing
reported is family gatherings. 
The next highest activity
reported of those positive cases
at 19 percent were house parties
and outdoor events.  So we want
everybody to enjoy the holiday
weekend.  We tend to feel safe
when we're around our family and
friends, and, in fact, that's
when we let our guard down and
we don't do the things that we
do when we're out in stores and
out in places where we're
actually being careful and
following all the good advice. 
So just want to remind them of
that.  To further enhance our
state's contact tracing efforts,
I'm pleased to announce that in
collaboration with Apple and
Google, Maryland will be one of
the first states in the nation
to use exposure notifications
express, which is a state of the
art app that is designed to help
public health officials more
quickly provide notifications
for residents about potential
COVID-19 exposure.  And we look
forward to working together with
Apple and Google on this
exciting opportunity.
As we
move into this stage of
recovery, I want to sincerely
thank our doctors, nurses, and
public health officials, our
small business community, and
most importantly, the people of
Maryland who
have really pulled
together over the past five
months to respond to this
unprecedented challenge with
incredible courage and
perseverance.  And it is thanks
to all of you that we have
crushed the curve and saved
lives, and that our response to
this this global pandemic serve
as an example to the rest of the
nation.  At this time I will
turn it over to Secretary Kelly
Schulz who will provide us with
an update on our economic
recovery and our efforts to keep
Maryland open for business. 
Madam Secretary?
     KELLY SCHULZ:  Thank you
very much, Governor.  It's a
good afternoon, indeed.  Thank
you.  From the earliest days of
the pandemic, the Maryland
Department of Commerce has
worked to support our businesses
through this unprecedented and
challenging period.  Through our
COVID-19 emergency relief
programs, we have awarded nearly
$175 million in grants and loans
to thousands of small businesses
in Maryland.  We've helped them
keep their doors open, pay their
bills, and keep employees on the
payroll.  Throughout the
reopening process, we have
worked closely with our partners
in Maryland's business community
to make sure we help them get
back to work in a way that keeps
customers and employees safe. 
Commerce's business development
team, along with our tourism
division and our arts council,
worked with 13 advisory groups
from industries including
tourism, manufacturing,
retailers, restaurants and bars,
and attractions, among others,
to develop industry-specific
guidance and best practices for
a safe reopening.  These
included recommendations for
keeping a clean workplace,
staggering employee shifts to
minimize contact, installing
signage or barriers to encourage
social distancing, and other
crucial steps to help us curb
the spread of COVID-19 as the
state reopened.  This guidance
was posted on our back to
business website along with the
Maryland Strong: Back to
Business pledge that we
encouraged businesses to sign
and display publicly so their
employees and customers could
have the confidence that they
were being protected.  We have
already gained more than 156,000
jobs during our recovery.  Our
unemployment rate is below the
national average at 7.6 percent
and falling, and all Maryland
businesses now can safely 
reopen.  We have stayed strong
during this pandemic, and we
will remain vigilant.  We are,
in fact, keeping Maryland open
for business.  Commerce will
continue to work closely with
our business community to ensure
that proper steps are taken to
protect the health of employees,
of customers, and of all of our
Maryland citizens.  Thank you,
Governor.
GOVERNOR HOGAN:  Thank you. 
With that, we would be happy to
take some questions.  (Question
off mic).
You know, I think you
stumped me with the very first
question because the experts on
that topic, I'll make sure they
follow up with you and put you
in touch with the experts who
have more detailed information. 
I don't think Secretary Phillips
or I have that information, but
we'll follow up with you right
after the press conference and
get you all the details.  I
think that's the first time I
didn't have an answer for a
question.  Ever.  (Question off
mic).
I was simply frustrated
with some of the way it was
portrayed.  For example, last
week, you know, we said what I
said again today, that we put
out a plan saying we would like
you to get some kind of a plan,
to get some kids back in school,
sometime this year.  And we left
it up to them.  We didn't order
anybody to do anything.  And the
response was, oh, my God, he's
ordering us to go back to school
right now!  Which we didn't
order anything.  We didn't say
anything about this week.  There
was hysteria about it was late,
it was rushed, it was within 48
hours of when the plans were
reviewed and it was 2 weeks
after they requested more
guidance, and we said you have
45 days to take a look at it. 
So it was a lot of push back I
think from the teachers union
and editorials in The Baltimore
Sun, but the fact of the matter
is that it's a careful,
important consideration that we
have to listen to teachers and
parents and students.  Everybody
wants to do this as carefully as
we can, and there's real
opinions on both sides of the
issue.  And I understand that. 
But I think just not, basically
saying the dog ate my homework
and we're not going to do any
planning for the whole year, is
not acceptable.  And the state
Board of Education decided that
that was not acceptable.  And 16
-- I mean, two-thirds of the
counties did a great job.  It's
just one-third did not.  And I
think now they'll go back --
we're not rushing anybody into
anything.  Maybe first quarter
they won't be able to make any
progress, but hopefully by the
second quarter they will because
we have some of the best health
metrics in the country.  I was
on the phone with many of my
democratic and republican
colleagues in the country, some
of them have health metrics
three, four times worse than
ours and many of them have all
their kids back in school
already.  I talked with one
Governor already, and they've
had all their kids back since
August 1, and they have much
worse health metrics.  (Question
off mic).
It's what all of our
experts believe.  Our numbers,
we're below in every county, all
the metrics that allow us to
move forward.  But again, the
counties by law have the
authority to make those
decisions.  The it's not really
up to me to decide what they
want to do.  (Question off mic).
Well, for example, so the plan
has changed a lot since April
when we put that out and it's
evolved.  We've already opened a
number of phase 3 things in
phase 2 and a number of phase 2
things in phase 1, so it's an
evolving process.  But I think
there's only five states in the
country that don't have movie
theaters open.  Things have
changed since that plan and
everybody believes we can do it.
The entertainment industry,
Kelly's work groups, they put
together safe reopening plans
and all the states around us
have done this already. 
Virginia, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, and all of -- you
know, we believe we're able to
move safely forward and we're
not opening at full capacity. 
We're just slowly entering phase
3 and we're going to see how
that goes before we lift all the
safe capacity restrictions and
whatnot.
(Question off mic)
. 
The landlords and tenants on
evictions?  Yeah.  So we were
one of the first states in the
whole country to put a
moratorium on evictions.  I
signed an executive order I
think back in April on this
topic.  A lot of people were
really impacted.  But there's no
question this impacts both the
tenants who are suffering and
some landlords, some of whom are
not big landlords but who are
families who own a second home
who are also potentially in the
process of losing their homes. 
So we're trying to work together
and provide relief and help all
of those, but the letter that
came from the legislature, I
haven't really read the letter
yet, but we already reached out
weeks ago to work with the
federal government CARES Act
funding to see if we couldn't
get relief both for tenants and
landlords.
We cannot use CARES
Act funding for this, so the
question is where do you come up
with the money and the
legislature didn't have any
ideas for that.  They just said
spend several hundred million
dollars more and as usual they
don't have suggestions where we
get the money from, and we're in
a situation where we have
billions of dollars in
shortfalls and we're looking at
cutting things, not adding
things.  So I haven't had a
chance to review any of those
proposals yet.  They didn't make
a proposal actually; they sent
letters.  (Question off mic).
The guidance on some of those
states is still in place.  We
said states that have a very
high positivity rate, and I
don't remember the exact number
we have, but I think it's
20 percent.  There's still a
number of states that have those
numbers so we still advise
people not to travel from those
states and advise them on a
voluntary basis to get tested
when they return and self
quarantine.  We have been
removed from everybody's list
because we've fallen below every
metric.  I think New York and
Massachusetts had us on some
cases per 100,000 which we've
now dropped by 45 percent in 30
days.  We were way under
5 percent, as I mentioned, for a
long period of time, but there
was one metric that somebody was
using and we're no longer above
that.  But ours is still in
place.  Sadly, there are still
some states in really bad shape.
We're just happy to not be one
of them.  And we don't want to
be one of them by having people
bring it in.  (Question off 
mic).
I am still concerned
about whether or not they're
going to be able to pull it off,
and we're going to continue to
try to stay on top of them,
although they don't report to
us, we don't really have a lot
of oversight authority.  I'm
going to continue to push to
make sure whatever we can do. 
For example, we said we wanted
them to open more polling
places, which they did.  We said
they need to get poll workers,
which we did for them because
they didn't do it.  And we said
they needed to mail these
ballots out and it took them
eight weeks.  I don't know why. 
Finally they're out.  But I'm
concerned about the polls and
them not responding fast enough.
I think we're going to work with
the legislature to continue to
stay on top of this Board of
Elections, because I'm not
completely confident that
everything is going to go
smoothly, and we're going to do
everything we can to assist, as
we have been.
     SPEAKER:  Last question.
(Question off mic)
. 
     GOVERNOR HOGAN:  We didn't
discuss it and we didn't agree
to anything.  I'm the one that
provided that text message,
which came from him after the
hearings last week.  And I did
not respond.  I can't tell you
what the purpose of him sending
that text was, but I'm the one
that provided it and immediately
called the Governor's council to
say, I'm not sure what this is
about.  You can also look at the
other text message to my Chief
of Staff asking how in the heck
someone gets a severance from 
MES.  Obviously, it was 2 months
after the alleged current, 2 and
a half, 3 months later. 
(Question off mic).  I
immediately called my council
and said, let me show you this
message, which I couldn't say
what the motivation was, but I'm
the one that provided it to the
council and asked them to
provide it to the legislature.
     SPEAKER:  Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN:  I have no
more comments about that.  Thank
you.
