Stay-At-Home Order Remains In Baltimore: Mayor

BALTIMORE, MD — While the governor lifted Maryland's stay-at-home order across the state, the city of Baltimore will remain under a stay-at-home order locally. The local order will be in effect until further notice.

Mayor Jack Young called it "irresponsible" to open while the city has not met the requirements outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"Baltimore City is simply not in a position to reopen at this time," Young said. He took issue with the state, which is lifting its stay-at-home order and replacing it with a safer at home advisory at 5 p.m. Friday. The reopening in Baltimore will be guided by data and science, the mayor said, after consulting with public health experts.

"All residents are required to remain at home unless they have to go out for essential jobs or tasks," Young said for Baltimore residents.

"The state has failed to provide local jurisdictions, including Baltimore City, with the testing resources we need to safely reopen," Young said. "To date, all testing resources have come from the city of Baltimore and our local hospitals."

This week, he said an average of about 571 tests a day have been administered.

"Until the state steps up to the plate," Young said, "it would be irresponsible for us to relax our restrictions."

For the city to reopen, he said 2,700 to 2,800 tests per day would be required, based on guidance from the World Health Organization.

"We're not there yet," Young said, adding that he wants churches and other establishments to open, but it was not safe at this time.

"The simple truth is that we need more tests to safely reopen the city of Baltimore," Young said.

"Baltimore has not yet met the requirements," Young said, as far as hospitalizations and fatality rates trending down.

"The number of cases and deaths have continued to increase," Young said. "We cannot lift this stay-at-home order until these increases stop."

Baltimore has seen 3,505 confirmed cases overall and six new fatalities Thursday alone, bringing the city's COVID-19 death toll to 183, Baltimore Health Commissioner Letitia Dzirasa said.

So far, she said 3.5 percent of the Baltimore's population has been tested for the coronavirus.

"Not enough tests have been made available to Baltimore City, a situation shared by many other Maryland jurisdictions," she said. "Until we have received enough test kits from the state, it is very difficult to gather the accurate information necessary to plan for a safe reopening of the city."

In keeping the local stay-at-home order in effect, Dzirasa said: "We do not make these decisions lightly." To lift the stay-at-home order, Dzirasa said accurate community transmission data was essential, requiring buy-in from both the state government and Baltimore residents.

Here are three things she said the city needed to reopen:

• Adequate testing. Baltimore needed enough coronavirus tests to be able to test anyone who is symptomatic as well as front-line health care workers or anyone deemed appropriate by the health department due to their living arrangements or profession. The city would need to conduct 2,700 to 2,800 tests per day with a COVID-19 positivity rate of less than 10 percent. Currently, the city is averaging 571 tests a day with a 21 percent positivity rate.
• Contact tracing. "Our contact tracing efforts need to see full participation from city residents," Dzirasa said. Contact tracing, or the practice of contacting people who may have been exposed to the virus to prevent it from spreading, has been a challenge, she said, because Baltimore City residents have not been answering the phone when contact tracing professionals call, or they have declined to answer questions. "These calls are confidential," she said. Contact tracing is the best tool the health department has in the absence of a vaccine, she said, to further the spread of the disease. Residents must take the calls seriously.
• Social distancing. People must continue social distancing and wearing face coverings when in public settings. They should stay home unless they have an essential reason for being out.

"There's a large disparity between where we are at currently and where the CDC guidance is recommending we be at to open safely,” Mayor Young said. "We are not going to lift our restrictions at this time."

See Also:

• MD Stay-At-Home Order Lifted; Some Jurisdictions To Reopen
• Baltimore Archdiocese Has Own Plan For Phasing In Reopening After Coronavirus
• MD Adds 1,091 New Coronavirus Cases As Reopening Approaches