Prince George’s County and Montgomery County will begin a slow and gradual reopening next week, county leaders announced Thursday. Additional business, retail, and religious activities will be permitted to resume in both counties on June 1.

Elected officials and health experts in both counties say that new case numbers, deaths, and hospitalizations have all declined enough to begin cautiously resuming certain activities, but residents will still be encouraged to stay at home when possible. The average number of COVID-19 patients in Prince George’s County hospitals have been on a two-week decline, from a high of 244 people the week of May 3 to a daily average of 181 patients the week of May 17. In Montgomery County, the 3-day average for the number of hospitalizations had declined for 9 out of the last 14 days. 

Statewide, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s spokesperson, Mike Ricci, recently noted that COVID-related hospitalizations were down 25% since April 30.

The hard-hit D.C. suburbs remain on a different reopening timeline than other parts of the state, where fewer people have been infected with the virus. Hogan began allowing jurisdictions in the state to start reopening in mid-May — and several did. Hogan announced this week that even more activities would be allowed to resume on Friday, including youth sports and outdoor summer camps.

Prince George’s County and Montgomery County will largely follow Hogan’s guidance, but some restrictions will remain tighter than elsewhere in the state. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said conditions in her county, which has seen the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in the state, are the main driver for those differences.

“We’ll continue to look at the numbers as they relate to Prince Georgians and we’ll make the decisions that are best for Prince George’s County,” said Alsobrooks. “The governor is making decisions for the state … We are coordinating with the District of Columbia, we have coordinated with Montgomery County.” (D.C. will begin to ease restrictions on Friday.)

Starting Monday in both counties, restaurants will be allowed to open outdoor seating with modified operations. Barbershops and hair salons will be allowed to open by appointment only. Childcare facilities will be open for employees who are returning to work. And houses of worship will be able to hold outdoor services with limited capacity.

In Prince George’s County, golf courses and tennis courts are open, but basketball courts and playgrounds will remain closed. While Hogan permitted Maryland jurisdictions to reopen outdoor pools in a limited way starting Friday, outdoor pools will remain closed in both Prince George’s County and Montgomery County.  A spokesperson for Alsobrooks also told DCist/WAMU Thursday that outdoor youth sports will not be permitted in Prince George’s, even though Hogan is permitting them to resume statewide in a limited fashion starting Friday.
Montgomery County will follow Hogan’s guidance on outdoor group sports and outdoor recreation. Manufacturing in the county will fully reopen “with precautions and guidance.”

Montgomery County will follow Hogan’s guidance on outdoor group sports and outdoor recreation, which will allow certain youth sports to resume in a limited way. Manufacturing in the county will fully reopen “with precautions and guidance.” While Hogan permitted Maryland jurisdictions to reopen outdoor pools in a limited way starting Friday, outdoor pools will remain closed in Montgomery County.

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich made his announcement about reopening amid heckling and boos from some activists demanding a more rapid reopening of the state. A protester stood behind him with a sign that said “Free Us Please.” Others yelled out, calling him a “fascist” and a “dictator.”

“There is no there is nothing in locking down that makes anybody happy,” Elrich said to the protesters at one point, frustrated. “I don’t get to do any of the things that I want to do.”

County Health Officer Dr. Travis Gayles, who was also greeted with boos as he walked to the mic, touted the county’s progress on testing and contact tracing, saying 5% of the county’s population would be able to be tested for the virus on a monthly basis. The county will also participate in a “large scale” state-wide contact tracing effort that will go live Friday, Gayles said.

In Prince George’s County, Alsobrooks also said contact tracing and testing capacity was improving: The county will open several new additional testing sites in the next several weeks, including a new site in Chillum on Monday. The county currently has 50 contact tracers, and Alsobrooks said 150 contact tracers would be working by the end of next week.

The reopening process has highlighted tension between leaders in local counties and the state government. County executives in Prince George’s, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Frederick, and Baltimore, along with the mayor of Baltimore City, have expressed concern that the state of Maryland has not done enough to support its hardest-hit areas ahead of reopening. 

Elrich has said he felt “hung out to dry” as a result of Maryland’s patchwork-style reopening process, where the governor loosened statewide regulations while allowing individual localities to hold back if they felt they needed to. On Wednesday, Hogan told reporters he thought Montgomery and Prince George’s counties “ought to move forward” with reopening.

But on Thursday when he announced reopening in Montgomery County, Elrich said he appreciated the governor’s measured approach to the first phase of reopening, and the way Hogan acknowledged the distinction between conditions in Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, which are responsible for about 50% of total infections in the state, and the rest of Maryland, with 10,752 cases and 14,508 cases, respectively.

Montgomery County Councilmember Nancy Navarro, whose district includes some of the predominantly black and Latino areas that have seen the highest rates of infection in the county, said she would like to see more collaboration with the governor, especially since Montgomery County is the most populous county in Maryland.

“We were all working together to address some of the directives to close things up” at the start of the pandemic, Navarro said. “I would like to see that same level of coordination as we start reopening … and I’m pretty hopeful that that will happen.”

Montgomery County created its own data dashboard to track progress on several key metrics health officials and leaders are relying on to make decisions about reopening. It has met a few key metrics, including 14 days of adequate ventilator capacity and 14 days of adequate intensive care bed capacity. But the county still lags behind on several metrics it says are key for reopening, including the number of COVID-19 patients in its emergency rooms and the number of acute care beds it has available — problems officials say they are working to remedy by adding more hospital beds.

“We’ve already suffered through incalculable illness and loss of life from this virus,” said Montgomery County Council Vice President Tom Hucker. In Montgomery County, 542 residents have died from COVID-19 — more than in any other county in Maryland. And while he said he trusted the guidance and data-driven approach of the county’s chief health officer, “there are plenty of indicators that we’re not quite ready for the relaxation of restrictions.”

Hucker said he knew of multiple elected officials in Maryland who had received threats related to their support of continued pandemic restrictions. But he wants decisions about reopening to be driven by health experts and not public opinion.

“We need to make these decisions based on public health data and advice from our top medical professionals, and they shouldn’t really be politically driven,” said Hucker.

“There’s also an equity issue,” Hucker added. “If we’re going to begin relaxing restrictions, this certainly means forcing many … working-class workers to go back on the front lines and expose themselves, when in many cases they don’t always have the protection that they need.”

Alsobrooks said Wednesday that she appreciated the concerns of residents who may be worried that reopening is happening too quickly.

“I appreciate the concern of our residents. They are very wise, and they have also been just — they’ve taken this seriously,” Alsobrooks said. “The fact of the matter is if they still feel this is a dangerous time, they’re right about it. … They should know that we share that concern and we have taken a very cautious approach.”

This story has been updated with additional information about the status of pools and outdoor sports in Prince George’s County.