State officials in Maryland announced that as a result of the continued spread of the coronavirus, schools will remain closed for an additional four weeks, as the number of confirmed cases statewide has topped 400, including four COVID-19-related deaths.
Gov. Larry Hogan said Wednesday that a significant number of the state's confirmed cases, which stands at 423 as of Wednesday, are people in their 40s. In one case, an infant contracted the disease.
"While COVID-19 still appears to be more deadly to older citizens over 60, 217 individuals with the virus in Maryland are between the ages of 20 and 50," Hogan said.
"And we have children as young as 10 months old who have the virus here in Maryland."
Hogan said the revised plan to reopen schools on April 24 is "somewhat aspirational," but he reiterated that schools will remain closed "if things are unsafe and the numbers are still climbing and people are getting infected."
The governor said "thankfully" Maryland is not seeing the number of infections and deaths at the same level as other states, but he added that there were 74 new cases in the last 24 hours, making it the state's the largest one-day increase to date.
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