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Maryland is getting hundreds of thousands of coronavirus testing kits from South Korea, enabling the state to ramp up its testing, Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday.
The supplies from LabGenomics, a South Korean company, will enable the state to administer 500,000 tests, according to the Hogan administration. The tests cost the state $9 million — a “worthwhile investment” given how much revenue the state is losing with so many businesses closed, Hogan said.
Hogan said his team worked to find and buy the tests in the absence of the federal government providing assistance to the states.
“The administration made it clear over and over again they want the states to take the lead and we have to go out and do it ourselves," Hogan said. “So, that’s exactly what we did.”
Speaking during a news conference outside the governor’s mansion in Annapolis, Hogan described an intense, behind-the-scenes effort to secure the tests. He dubbed it “Operation Enduring Friendship.”
The Republican governor started the effort with his Korean-born wife, Yumi Hogan, on March 28, when the couple called South Korea’s ambassador to the United States, Lee Soo Hyuck.
“We spoke of the special relationship between Maryland an the Republic of Korea and we made a personal plea — in Korean — asking for their assistance," Hogan said.
On the morning of the same day, a Saturday, the state health department had reported just under 1,000 cases of the disease. But that night was when Hogan announced a “tragic” outbreak of COVID-19 at Pleasant View Nursing & Rehabilitation in Carroll County with 66 infections and at least one death. At least 24 people at Pleasant View have now died.
The Hogans’ first call led to “22 straight days” of negotiations and vetting that involved scientists and agencies in both countries. Hogan said there were “countless calls” in the middle of the night due to the 13-hour time difference between Maryland and South Korea.
“It really was an amazing team effort,” Hogan said, calling the international cooperation “unprecedented.”
The Hogans welcomed a Korean Air Boeing 777 plane Saturday at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport that carried the testing supplies.
Kata D. Hall@katadhall
· 4h
Replying to @katadhall
3) Maryland has successfully expanded testing capability by over 5,000 percent and has now completed over 71,000 tests to date. Last week, we secured an additional 40,000 tests and the state invested $2.5 million to help the UMB lab handle up to 20,000 tests per day.
Kata D. Hall@katadhall
4) On Saturday morning, the Governor and First Lady stood on the tarmac at @BWI_Airport to welcome a Korean Air plane carrying LabGun #COVID19 PCR test kits from LabGenomics. It was the first-ever direct freight flight from Incheon Airport to BWI.
47
4:03 AM - Apr 21, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
22 people are talking about this
Hogan said securing the tests represents “an exponential, game-changing step forward on our large-scale testing initiative.”
The governor praised several high-level state officials who were part of the negotiations, and singled out his wife.
“Most importantly, I want to thank Maryland’s first lady, my wife, Yumi. She truly is a champion of this Operation Enduring Freedom,” Hogan said.
The governor was joined at his news conference by Hong Seok-in, the director for public diplomacy for South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whom Hogan thanked in Korean. A Korean flag was behind Hogan’s podium, alongside U.S. and Maryland flags.
"The state of Maryland owes an incredible debt of gratitude to the people of South Korea,” Hogan said.
MD First Lady, Yumi Hogan, was involved in securing the deal of kits, making calls to the South Korean ambassador.(Luke Broadwater)
The ability to administer 500,000 tests represents a dramatic increase in Maryland’s testing capabilities.
Maryland health officials have reported the results of 71,397 tests (including 13,684 positives) among a population of about 6 million.
As of Monday, as many as 516 Marylanders have died from the coronavirus, and another 66 deaths are suspected to be due to the virus.
“It will enable us to identify those who are sick and those who have virus. So, it can help us isolate and do our contact tracing and keep people safe all across the state and help us with reopening," Hogan said.
He noted, however, that it will take a little bit of time to match up the tests with necessary supplies and lab capacity and roll them out. “It’s going to take awhile to ramp up all of the things that we need to utilize all of the tests,” he said.
Hogan said that the lack of testing is “one of the biggest problems in America.”
Maryland secured 40,000 tests last week and sent $2.5 million to the University of Maryland, Baltimore, to help fund a project to use robotics to expand testing there — potentially to 20,000 tests per day.
But those steps weren’t enough, Hogan said.
Hogan said expanding testing capability is the most critical part of plans to start relaxing restrictions and reopening businesses and the economy. Later this week, Hogan plans to offer more details about the criteria for beginning a gradual reopening process.
[With help of robots, Maryland medical school to vastly expand state’s testing for coronavirus — if swabs can be found] »
The other “pillars” of Hogan’s reopening strategy are: expanding hospital capacity to meet a surge of patients, increasing the supply of personal protective equipment, and building the contact tracing operation to track down people exposed to patients with COVID-19.
The governor said the state will continue to search for more tests and is researching different types of tests.
“It’s a huge step in the right direction. It’s not the end of it, though,” he said.
Meanwhile, Republican President Donald Trump accused Democrats on Monday of playing “a very dangerous political game” by insisting there is a shortage of tests for the coronavirus, and Vice President Mike Pence told governors the federal government is working around-the-clock to help them increase testing.
The vice president sought to soften the Trump administration’s message to governors amid growing clamor from the states for a national strategy to help secure in-demand supplies such as testing swabs and chemical reagents. Trump said Sunday that he could use the Defense Production Act to compel one company to manufacture swabs.
[Maryland Gov. Hogan counters Trump on testing availability, discusses plans to reopen economy in CNN interview] »
“When it comes to testing, we’re here to help,” Pence told governors during a video conference from the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Associated Press obtained audio of the call.
Pence said the administration sent an email Monday to officials in each state detailing current testing capacity by state. But Hogan said much of the unused lab machinery listed for his state in the report was in federal labs that the state does not have access to. Pence agreed to open federal labs to help states.
“We already knew where the labs were,” Hogan said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/corona...0200420-atxs3grvbjdgphzzt4tfhuhnbm-story.html
The supplies from LabGenomics, a South Korean company, will enable the state to administer 500,000 tests, according to the Hogan administration. The tests cost the state $9 million — a “worthwhile investment” given how much revenue the state is losing with so many businesses closed, Hogan said.
Hogan said his team worked to find and buy the tests in the absence of the federal government providing assistance to the states.
“The administration made it clear over and over again they want the states to take the lead and we have to go out and do it ourselves," Hogan said. “So, that’s exactly what we did.”
Speaking during a news conference outside the governor’s mansion in Annapolis, Hogan described an intense, behind-the-scenes effort to secure the tests. He dubbed it “Operation Enduring Friendship.”
The Republican governor started the effort with his Korean-born wife, Yumi Hogan, on March 28, when the couple called South Korea’s ambassador to the United States, Lee Soo Hyuck.
“We spoke of the special relationship between Maryland an the Republic of Korea and we made a personal plea — in Korean — asking for their assistance," Hogan said.
On the morning of the same day, a Saturday, the state health department had reported just under 1,000 cases of the disease. But that night was when Hogan announced a “tragic” outbreak of COVID-19 at Pleasant View Nursing & Rehabilitation in Carroll County with 66 infections and at least one death. At least 24 people at Pleasant View have now died.
The Hogans’ first call led to “22 straight days” of negotiations and vetting that involved scientists and agencies in both countries. Hogan said there were “countless calls” in the middle of the night due to the 13-hour time difference between Maryland and South Korea.
“It really was an amazing team effort,” Hogan said, calling the international cooperation “unprecedented.”
The Hogans welcomed a Korean Air Boeing 777 plane Saturday at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport that carried the testing supplies.
Kata D. Hall@katadhall
· 4h
Replying to @katadhall
3) Maryland has successfully expanded testing capability by over 5,000 percent and has now completed over 71,000 tests to date. Last week, we secured an additional 40,000 tests and the state invested $2.5 million to help the UMB lab handle up to 20,000 tests per day.
Kata D. Hall@katadhall
4) On Saturday morning, the Governor and First Lady stood on the tarmac at @BWI_Airport to welcome a Korean Air plane carrying LabGun #COVID19 PCR test kits from LabGenomics. It was the first-ever direct freight flight from Incheon Airport to BWI.
47
4:03 AM - Apr 21, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
22 people are talking about this
Hogan said securing the tests represents “an exponential, game-changing step forward on our large-scale testing initiative.”
The governor praised several high-level state officials who were part of the negotiations, and singled out his wife.
“Most importantly, I want to thank Maryland’s first lady, my wife, Yumi. She truly is a champion of this Operation Enduring Freedom,” Hogan said.
The governor was joined at his news conference by Hong Seok-in, the director for public diplomacy for South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whom Hogan thanked in Korean. A Korean flag was behind Hogan’s podium, alongside U.S. and Maryland flags.
"The state of Maryland owes an incredible debt of gratitude to the people of South Korea,” Hogan said.
MD First Lady, Yumi Hogan, was involved in securing the deal of kits, making calls to the South Korean ambassador.(Luke Broadwater)
The ability to administer 500,000 tests represents a dramatic increase in Maryland’s testing capabilities.
Maryland health officials have reported the results of 71,397 tests (including 13,684 positives) among a population of about 6 million.
As of Monday, as many as 516 Marylanders have died from the coronavirus, and another 66 deaths are suspected to be due to the virus.
“It will enable us to identify those who are sick and those who have virus. So, it can help us isolate and do our contact tracing and keep people safe all across the state and help us with reopening," Hogan said.
He noted, however, that it will take a little bit of time to match up the tests with necessary supplies and lab capacity and roll them out. “It’s going to take awhile to ramp up all of the things that we need to utilize all of the tests,” he said.
Hogan said that the lack of testing is “one of the biggest problems in America.”
Maryland secured 40,000 tests last week and sent $2.5 million to the University of Maryland, Baltimore, to help fund a project to use robotics to expand testing there — potentially to 20,000 tests per day.
But those steps weren’t enough, Hogan said.
Hogan said expanding testing capability is the most critical part of plans to start relaxing restrictions and reopening businesses and the economy. Later this week, Hogan plans to offer more details about the criteria for beginning a gradual reopening process.
[With help of robots, Maryland medical school to vastly expand state’s testing for coronavirus — if swabs can be found] »
The other “pillars” of Hogan’s reopening strategy are: expanding hospital capacity to meet a surge of patients, increasing the supply of personal protective equipment, and building the contact tracing operation to track down people exposed to patients with COVID-19.
The governor said the state will continue to search for more tests and is researching different types of tests.
“It’s a huge step in the right direction. It’s not the end of it, though,” he said.
Meanwhile, Republican President Donald Trump accused Democrats on Monday of playing “a very dangerous political game” by insisting there is a shortage of tests for the coronavirus, and Vice President Mike Pence told governors the federal government is working around-the-clock to help them increase testing.
The vice president sought to soften the Trump administration’s message to governors amid growing clamor from the states for a national strategy to help secure in-demand supplies such as testing swabs and chemical reagents. Trump said Sunday that he could use the Defense Production Act to compel one company to manufacture swabs.
[Maryland Gov. Hogan counters Trump on testing availability, discusses plans to reopen economy in CNN interview] »
“When it comes to testing, we’re here to help,” Pence told governors during a video conference from the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Associated Press obtained audio of the call.
Pence said the administration sent an email Monday to officials in each state detailing current testing capacity by state. But Hogan said much of the unused lab machinery listed for his state in the report was in federal labs that the state does not have access to. Pence agreed to open federal labs to help states.
“We already knew where the labs were,” Hogan said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/corona...0200420-atxs3grvbjdgphzzt4tfhuhnbm-story.html
