Gov. Larry Hogan declared a 30-day state of emergency that mobilizes the National Guard to assist state and local health officers at testing and vaccine sites and authorizes the state Department of Health to take steps to increase staffing at overwhelmed hospitals.

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       Hogan predicted that Maryland is expected to see its “most challenging” phase of the pandemic in the next four to six weeks. He said models are showing that hospitals could see more than 5,000 people hospitalized, which would amount to a 250 percent increase in hospitalizations.

       “With this new surge of omicron it’s important for Marylanders to go back to using common sense and doing the things that will keep us safe: avoiding crowds, keeping your distance, washing your hands, and yes, once again, wearing the damn masks,” Hogan said.

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       On Tuesday, the state health department reported 3,057 people hospitalized with covid-19, an record since the start of the pandemic. The number of patients hospitalized is an increase of 500 percent in the last seven weeks, Hogan said.

       Hospitals implemented pandemic surge plans when they reached 2,000 covid-19 patients, which included the transfer of patients from overcrowded hospitals to hospitals that could accommodate them and the cancellation of non-urgent elective surgeries.

       Hogan said his focus has been and continues to be keeping people out of hospitals and preventing deaths. Asked about imposing a statewide mask mandate, he said he is not considering one because it is difficult to enforce.

       Hogan has been under fire for weeks to take additional action to address the surge in the state. He said Tuesday that the models are “drastically different” than they were previously, which led him to take the latest steps.