Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said on Sunday he didn’t “see any way that we’re going to be opening back up in a couple weeks.”
Hogan, appearing on “Fox News Sunday” responded to questions about President Trump’s stated desire to see portions of the country lift strict social-distancing guidelines that have kept people at home and shuttered large swaths of the economy by Easter.
“I think in two weeks, around Easter, we’re going to be looking a lot more like New York,” Hogan said.
“In spite of the fact that we’ve taken some of the most aggressive steps in the country on social distancing, and we were out front of nearly every state on some of these things, we’ve been taking unprecedented actions every day for the past three weeks, it’s continuing to grow at really kind of frightening paces,” he added. “We think it’s going to be worse in two weeks, not better.”
{mosads}New York has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. As of Sunday morning, there have been more than 53,500 confirmed cases and more than 700 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Maryland has seen more than 1,000 cases.
Hogan, who is the head of the National Governors Association, also conceded that the messaging coming out of the White House “isn’t helpful” as cities and states across the country continue to try to persuade residents to only leave their homes for essential trips.
“I think the president is trying to be hopeful, which is good,” Hogan added. “We don’t want people to be scared, but we do want them to take it seriously.”