BALTIMORE – Multiple members of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s staff have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to his office.
Kata D. Hall, deputy director of communications, said late Tuesday night that both the Republican governor and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford were tested for COVID-19 “out of an abundance of caution.” Both tested negative for the virus.
“While we cannot disclose any personal health information, COVID-19 positive cases have affected multiple members of the governor’s staff,” Hall said.
Those who tested positive are quarantining in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocol. The governor’s office also said contact tracing is underway.
Hogan and Rutherford are vaccinated, and the governor revealed that he got a “booster” dose of the vaccine last Monday.
Over the past week, the governor and many members of his team took a swing through the Eastern Shore, visiting businesses and then spent several days in Ocean City at the Maryland Association of Counties annual conference. Hogan wrapped up the conference with a keynote speech on Saturday morning.
The conference is attended by thousands of government officials from across the state, and there are numerous after-hours social events and political fundraisers held at the same time.
Change Maryland, one of Hogan’s political organizations, held a fundraiser last Thursday at the Clarion Fontainebleau hotel in Ocean City.
The Maryland Association of Counties sent an email to conference attendees on Tuesday night notifying them that there were positive tests potentially associated with the conference, said Michael Sanderson, the organization’s director.
Sanderson said the association decided to send the email after reading news reports that “seemed to indicate more than one or two people that were at and around our events” tested positive.
Measures to limit the spread of the virus, such as masking and physical distancing, were encouraged but not required at the conference.
“We did strongly recommend and urge the use of masks,” Sanderson said. “We changed the physical space of most of our breakout sessions to allow more space between seats and fewer seats at the table … in keeping with the times that we’re in.”
About 50 to 70% of conference attendees were wearing masks, according to Dennis Schrader, the state health secretary, who was asked about mask usage during an interview last Thursday on WYPR radio.
“I was wearing one, of course,” Schrader said.
“MACo has asked that that be considered by participants,” Schrader said, adding he saw “quite a bit of compliance with that request from MACo.”
MACo’s Sanderson noted the association’s conference was not the only gathering on the Eastern Shore where the virus could have spread.
Politicians, lobbyists and others have filled their social media accounts with pictures from fundraisers and other events, many of them featuring smiling, maskless faces.
Following the conference in Ocean City, Hogan attended a ribbon-cutting event on Monday at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Linthicum. And on Tuesday, he was in King George, Va., with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Hogan has made no public statements about the coronavirus cases in his office.
Rutherford did not mention the positive cases during a Wednesday morning interview on WCBC radio in Cumberland. Rutherford called in from his home and promoted an in-person town hall on opioid addictions planned for Thursday night at Allegany College. He also said he plans to visit two public schools in Allegany County.
