With Maryland schools planning to reopen, teacher unions say classrooms aren’t safe enough yet from coronavirus
February 16, 2021 -

As many Maryland school districts prepare to return to classrooms for the first time in nearly a year, local teachers unions are staring down a deadline with a decision: How hard should they push back against reopening plans they believe put their health and lives in danger? Since the summer, the unions have demanded a list of safety and health conditions are met before they return to in-person teaching.

Read More: Capital Gazette
With Maryland schools planning to reopen, teacher unions say classrooms aren’t safe enough yet from coronavirus
February 15, 2021 -

As many Maryland school districts prepare to return to classrooms for the first time in nearly a year, local teachers unions are staring down a deadline with a decision: How hard should they push back against reopening plans they believe put their health and lives in danger? Since the summer, the unions have demanded a list of safety and health conditions are met before they return to in-person teaching.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Here’s how Maryland jurisdictions are handling the academic school year amid the coronavirus pandemic
February 12, 2021 -

Anne Arundel County Public Schools told teachers and school staff Feb. 2 that they must return to school buildings Feb. 17, and work from there four days a week, with Wednesday at home and online so schools can be cleaned. Baltimore City will delay expanding its school reopening by two weeks, giving the school system more time to prepare for the arrival of kindergarten through second graders. Baltimore County public school officials are preparing to bring students back to school buildings for the first time in nearly a year, with employees expected to return to buildings by Feb. 16, followed by students March 1.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Baltimore IG faults State’s Attorney Mosby for far-flung travels without approval; finds no misspent tax dollars
February 10, 2021 -

After five days in Kenya meeting African prosecutors and seeing the wildlife, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby flew to Dulles International Airport where a detachment of city police officers picked her up and drove her to the horse and wine country outside Washington, D.C. Mosby spent two days attending a retreat for prosecutors at the exclusive Salamander Resort & Spa, “the epitome of luxury,” according to the website, before Baltimore police officers returned to pick her up and drive her home.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Confusion and chaos: Inside the vaccine rollout in D.C., Maryland and Virginia
February 7, 2021 -

The first precious boxloads of the frozen elixir arrived in December, bearing great promise for curtailing the pandemic that has paralyzed the region and the world. Nurses and firefighters got injections on live TV. Some of them cried. Watching at home, many hopeful people cried, too. But in the weeks that followed, that hope was mixed with frustration, then anger, as it became clear that getting the potentially lifesaving vaccine would not be easy — not nationally, and not in the greater Washington region.

Read More: Washington Post
900,000 infected. More than 15,000 dead.
February 7, 2021 -

The boat motored up the Nile River, a capsule of gaiety beneath a spotless February sky. Bonnie Lippe figured the aches and fever she and others in her tour group experienced were related to the rich food or the drinking water. A month later, she became the first person in the Washington region confirmed to have the coronavirus.

Read More: Washington Post
Police warn Marylanders about scams surrounding COVID-19 vaccines
February 7, 2021 -

As the need for more coronavirus vaccines rises, a warning from Anne Arundel County police about a scam targeting older adults that could potentially send criminals to your home. WBAL-TV 11 News spoke with a Glen Burnie woman who narrowly avoided becoming a victim. When the phone rang, the conversation on the other line quickly raised concerns for Nancy Johnson. “She said something else about Anne Arundel County, and she didn’t pronounce the Arundel bit right, so I knew she probably didn’t live in Anne Arundel County,” Johnson said. “She was pure American woman. Not a foreign person. She had an American accent.”

Read More: WBAL
Amid shortage, Maryland acting health secretary says COVID vaccine providers should conserve second doses
February 2, 2021 -

Maryland’s acting health secretary on Tuesday said health care providers should hold in reserve enough COVID-19 vaccine to administer second doses to people who have already received one shot — rather than using their supply to give more people their first inoculation against the infectious disease, as some have recommended. “We are very adamant that we should not be burning through second doses as first doses, unless the federal government suddenly opens up the floodgates and we have doses coming from everywhere,” said acting secretary Dennis R. Schrader during a virtual Maryland House of Delegates committee hearing.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
A diverse suburb’s biggest pandemic challenge: Distributing the vaccine equitably
February 1, 2021 -

Ten months after a liberal, diverse suburb saw its first cases of the coronavirus, it faces what might be its most daunting task yet: distributing a protective vaccine to all 1 million residents. Lawmakers and health officials in Montgomery County, Md., which two years ago passed a sweeping racial equity bill, have emphasized the need to distribute the coronavirus vaccine according to “equity principles.”

Read More: Washington Post
Some Marylanders with health conditions can get vaccinated starting Monday. But who’s included?
February 1, 2021 -

Starting Monday, adults in Maryland who are hospitalized with certain health conditions will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s latest clinician guidance. But the list of qualifying conditions is short, and the news comes while vaccine appointments remain difficult to obtain. People who are not hospitalized but are diagnosed with these conditions won’t be able to be vaccinated until Phase 2 of the rollout.

Read More: Baltimore Sun