BALTIMORE _ Maryland health officials on Sunday continued reaching out to people who attended a political conference late last month in Prince George's County that was attended by a New Jersey resident who later tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
"We are talking about a large-scale effort," said Mike Ricci, a spokesman for Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
The Conservative Political Action Conference, held annually at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, bills itself as "the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world." This year's CPAC, held Feb. 26-29, drew an appearance from President Donald Trump.
Also attending the conference was a New Jersey resident who grew sick and later tested positive for the coronavirus that's also known as COVID-19, officials announced on Saturday. It is not believed that the president was in proximity with the attendee who tested positive for the coronavirus.
CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp, speaking on FOX News on Sunday, said he had been in touch with the patient. "The patient is feeling better and I believe he is on the mend," he said.
A dozen Republican Maryland lawmakers attended the final day of CPAC to accept awards for their conservative voting records and watch Trump's speech, but they don't believe they were exposed to the New Jersey patient, said Del. Matt Morgan, a St. Mary's County Republican.
The group was given VIP treatment, ushered through a separate security line and given seating to watch the speech away from the crowd, he said.
"We kind of bypassed everything," Morgan said.
Morgan said he was concerned when he first heard of the CPAC-connected case of coronavirus on Saturday afternoon, but after speaking with conference organizers and Maryland Department of Health officials, he's not too worried.
"We had very little contact with the general public there," Morgan said.
Morgan said the Republican lawmakers will follow the advice that's been given for all CPAC attendees: monitor your health and report any symptoms to their doctor and local health department.
State health officials have been retracing the steps and interactions of the New Jersey person who was at CPAC, which is known as "contact tracing."
They'd already done this for Maryland's three confirmed cases, all Montgomery County residents who were diagnosed after returning from a Nile River cruise in Egypt. One person attended an event at a Montgomery County retirement community and another traveled to Pennsylvania.
Contact tracing is significantly more challenging for the patient who was at the CPAC conference, which is attended by thousands, Ricci said.
State health officials, meanwhile, have been running about 15 to 20 tests per day, according to Ricci. They're no longer reporting the number of pending tests now that private labs also have approval to test people for coronavirus.
The private labs will report their test results to the state, and the health department's website will continue to report the number of confirmed positive and negative tests at 10 a.m. daily.
The state's public health lab has about 1,000 test kits and expects to get more in the coming days. There's no concern about having enough capacity for testing at this time, Ricci said.
Hogan, meanwhile, appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" to discuss the coronavirus response on Sunday morning.
He stressed that governors "are on the front lines" of responding to the coronavirus outbreak.
"Information is changing not only on a daily basis, but almost on an hourly basis," he said.
Hogan previously declared a state of emergency, which allowed the state to mobilize its emergency operations center and ramp up coordination with federal agencies.
He also submitted an emergency bill to the Maryland General Assembly that would authorize the state to tap the Rainy Day Fund for up to $50 million to help with coronavirus response, if warranted. State lawmakers swiftly sent the bill through the legislative process and gave it final approval Friday night. The governor is expected to sign it into law this week.
A budget request for an additional $10 million for coronavirus is pending as lawmakers continue their evaluation of Hogan's budget proposal.
