Maryland Governor Hogan creates National Guard strike teams to combat coronavirus in nursing homes

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is forming special strike teams using members of the National Guard to help battle the coronavirus outbreak in nursing homes.

The Republican governor has described the effort as the first of its type in the nation. 

The number of coronavirus cases in the Virginia-Maryland-D.C. area has been rising rapidly.

Maryland is experiencing cluster outbreaks of the virus at 90 nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The special strike teams will provide triage and emergency care, in addition to supplies for overwhelmed nursing facilities.

Nursing homes and similar facilities across the country have been hit hard by the virus, in part because of their older populations with pre-existing health issues. 

One of the first U.S. outbreaks of the deadly virus was at the Seattle-area Life Care Center of Kirkland. Two-thirds of the facility's residents and staff has tested positive for the virus, and the facility has been linked to 37 virus-related deaths. It also has the highest number of coronavirus deaths of any location in the U.S.

The Trump administration has already issued several recommendations to such facilities and warned those that don't comply about losing federal money. Among the recommendations are separate quarters for healthy and sick residents and limiting non-essential people from entering such facilities. 

Hogan, who is the head of the National Governor’s Association, outlined several types of teams. Testing teams will identify individuals who have been in contact with confirmed cases and provide fast testing.

The second type of team will assess the situations on site and decide on equipment and supply needs. These teams will include National Guardsmen.

The final kind of team will be made up of doctors and nurses pulled from major hospital networks. They will be the on site medical triage team, working to stabilize nursing home residents in an effort to avoid unnecessary transports to larger hospitals.

Hogan has successfully urged the administration to designate the Washington-Baltimore corridor a priority area, considering the large number of federal employees who live and work in the geographic region.

The governor also has directed health officials to publish all available information pertaining to racial and ethnic demographics surrounding the virus. This includes testing data, hospitalization statistics, and mortality rates.

Maryland now has just under 5,000 reported cases of the virus, and just over 100 deaths.