Thread by @GovLarryHogan

As we’ve been projecting, our statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations have now surpassed 2,000—a surge driven primarily by unvaccinated patients. It cannot be stressed enough that getting vaccinated and boosted are your strongest possible defenses against this virus and its variants.

With hospitalizations and deaths our primary focus, we have already taken a number of emergency actions in preparation for this surge, including the following:

✅ Established a surge operations center to optimize bed capacity and fully utilize alternate care sites
✅ Committed an additional $100 million for hospitals and nursing homes to address staffing needs
✅ Began distributing 500,000 at-home rapid test kits across the state

✅ Expanded the days and hours of state-run testing sites
✅ Made an additional $30 million in funding available to school systems to enhance testing resources
✅ Mobilized the @MDNG to stand up multiple surge testing sites

✅ Calling on the federal government to expand testing availability, including invoking the Defense Production Act
✅ Expanded genomic sequencing to track and detect COVID-19 variants
✅ Aggressively promoted booster shots, which provide the strongest protection against Omicron

Again, this is not March of 2020. It’s important to use common sense and take precautions, but we have the tools, resources, and strategies in place to protect ourselves. We are closely monitoring this surge, and will continue to provide updates as additional actions are taken.