Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has announced that the state is relaxing restrictions on nursing home visits and increasing capacity at child care facilities. The changes come as Hogan announced on Thursday that Maryland reported no new COVID-19 deaths for the first time since March.

Maryland is allowing indoor visitation at nursing homes where no new cases have been reported in 14 days. Hogan said the change is a result of new federal and state guidelines, and advances in rapid testing. (However, in September, the state’s health department told DCist/WAMU that access to rapid tests remained limited to people who show symptoms and some private providers.)

“By next week, working in conjunction with our federal partners, all 227 Maryland nursing homes are on track to receive their initial allocations of rapid testing supplies,” Hogan said at a press briefing. “This new federal policy and our new state efforts allow for more flexibility for compassionate care visits to support residents who need emotional and spiritual support.”

Since beginning Phase 3 of reopening in September, Hogan said the Maryland Department of Health has seen improving trends in health metrics, citing a nearly 90% drop in the state’s positivity rate to 2.88%, marking 98 consecutive days the rate has been below 5% — which is the World Health Organization’s recommended benchmark.

But nursing homes have been a battleground during the pandemic, and Hogan said himself that, “This spring, for states across the nation, nursing homes became ground zero in the fight against COVID-19.”

In the early months of the pandemic, public health officials across the region sent “strike teams” to long-term facilities in an effort to quell outbreaks with increased testing capacity. Still, months later, nursing homes remained sites of heavy caseloads as the region moved forward with reopening plans. State health inspectors have fined or otherwise warned some nursing homes for lax coronavirus restrictions over the past six months.

But residents and staff have had to weigh the dangers of contracting the virus with the loneliness of being blocked from seeing any loved ones or receiving compassionate care visits during the pandemic, due to strict guidelines.

“You have to put things into context and think that some of these residents, they haven’t seen any family members since this whole thing started,” Health Enrico Lachica, a clinical nurse administrator in Montgomery County, told DCist/WAMU in July. “So you want to try to find a fine balance between allowing families to see their loved ones in the homes versus trying to protect the residents from the community spread of the virus.”

To date, Hogan said the state has provided nearly $102 million for coronavirus testing and PPE at nursing homes. On Thursday, the Republican governor announced an additional $6 million will be used specifically for testing nursing home staff.

Thursday’s announcement also included the expansion of child care capacity, as State Superintendent of Schools Karen Salmon said child care centers in Maryland can return to full teacher-to-child ratios and capacities. In rooms where the ratio is one teacher to 10 students, these centers can serve up to 20 children ages 3 to 4; and in rooms with a ratio of one teacher to 15 students, centers can allow up to 30 school-age children.

“We have heard very clearly from many parents and providers who have written and called me, that we return to licensed capacity to meet the needs of working families and prevent the closure of child care centers once it could be done safely,” Salmon said in a press release. “I am hopeful this announcement effectively complements local school system efforts to bring students back into the classroom and provides more working families with access to safe child care programs.”