Maryland governor signs executive order boosting staff at state hospitals, nursing homes

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Monday signed an executive order to boost state hospitals and nursing homes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement on Monday, Hogan said the new initiative would provide more licensing flexibility for pharmacists and technicians to help support the pharmacy workforce.

The initiative will allow nursing students to serve as licensed practitioners including licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants and certified medical technicians. The state initiative will allow respiratory therapy students to assist in augmenting the emergency medical services workforce.

"We continue to take short-term actions to support our health care workforce as it deals with the Omicron wave and the influx of unvaccinated patients," Hogan said in a statement.

"All of the data continues to show very encouraging trends, with many of our key health metrics consistently and substantially declining. We ask Marylanders to remain vigilant, to keep doing the things that can keep us safe, and to get boosted for maximum protection against these variants," Hogan concluded.

The new initiative comes as the U.S. is dealing with a winter surge of COVID-19 infections as omicron has become the dominant variant in the country.

Hogan's office also said COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state have dropped to 2,330, a 32.6 percent drop since peaking at 3,462 on Jan. 11.