WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2020) The White House has agreed to consider the area between the US capital and the state of Maryland's biggest city, Baltimore, as a top priority to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan told reporters on Tuesday.
Over the past two weeks, Hogan repeatedly urged the Trump administration to declare the area between Washington and Baltimore a priority in the response efforts against the novel coronavirus.
"We have succeeded in convincing the Trump administration to designate the Greater Baltimore-Washington Corridor as a priority," Hogan said.
More than five million people live in the Washington-Baltimore area, which is also home for almost all US Federal agencies, including the National Security Agency, FBI, NASA, Cyber Command, National Institutes of Health and well as home to several military bases, Hogan noted.
The designation includes the state of Maryland in general and 12 of its counties in particular, which demand urgent federal assistance, Hogan said.
Maryland will soon face the peak or the novel coronavirus pandemic, or in ten days according to one White House projection, according to the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg school of Public Health.
As of Tuesday, Maryland has 4,371 confirmed COVID-19 cases and the death toll stands at 103.
