Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said on Sunday that he isn't planning to issue any new lockdown orders despite his concerns about a surge in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.
Hogan told “Fox News Sunday” anchor Bret Baier that hospitalizations in Maryland have risen by about 150 percent over the past two weeks.
“We are anticipating over the next three to five weeks probably the worst surge we’ve seen in our hospitals throughout the entire crisis, but we don’t expect it to last for long. We’re hoping it starts to taper off fairly quickly, but we’re facing a pretty rough time,” Hogan said.
The Republican governor said the state is trying to provide more support for hospitals and pushing to get more residents vaccinated amid the fast-spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus.
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“We’re encouraging (vaccine) boosters, but we’re not anticipating any lockdowns at all. We're not considering that,” he said.
As of Sunday, the state's health department reported that 1,257 people were hospitalized, more than twice as many people who were hospitalized in mid-November, the Baltimore Sun reported. But the state hasn't reported data for coronavirus cases or deaths since Dec. 3, when a cyberattack hit its health department.
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