Officials urged to cancel reported plans for Trump’s July 4th parade; Northam plans to allow Northern Virginia to begin easing restrictions Friday;

A sixth inmate from Maryland’s prison system has died of covid-19 as the total number of confirmed cases among Maryland prisoners reached 145, representing a 42 percent jump from totals a week ago, according to state figures released Tuesday.

The most recent death involved a man who had been serving time at the Central Maryland Correctional Facility in Sykesville.

Earlier, inmates from Jessup Correctional Institution, Dorsey Run Correctional Facility, Roxbury Correctional Institution and Patuxent Institution died of covid-19. Citing privacy laws, officials have not identified the inmates.

Prisons and jails around the nation are places of great concerns for covid-19 outbreaks. Inmates share cells and, at some institutions, sleep on bunks in open, dorm-style rooms. Social distancing can be difficult if not impossible.

Across Maryland, 145 of approximately 20,000 inmates at state prisons have tested positive for the virus, according to figures released Tuesday. On May 18, correctional officials reported that 102 inmates had tested positive.

A prison spokesman declined to say Tuesday if virus spread has increased or the higher numbers reflected more testing.

Also Tuesday, officials reported that 237 correctional officers from state prisons have tested positive, a smaller percent increase compared with the 220 total released last week, according to the figures. Officials have reported no deaths among correctional officers.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is ready to nudge the city of Richmond into Phase 1 along with the rest of the state, even though Mayor Levar Stoney wants to hold off.

In a phone call and letter Tuesday, Stoney (D) asked Northam for a “modified reopening” that would keep restrictions in place for houses of worship, barber shops and salons. At his afternoon news briefing, Northam said he had not made a decision on Stoney’s request.

Hours later, the governor sent Stoney a letter saying he believes Richmond should reopen, with individual businesses staying shuttered if that’s what they want to do.

“You wrote that many faith leaders and operators of barber shops and salons ‘have told [you] that they … do not intend to reopen’ in Phase 1,” Northam wrote. “I understand this perspective, and I would point out that nothing requires any house of worship or any private business to open if they do not want to. Just because a business can open, does not mean that it must open. … This forces no business or house of worship to take any action it does not want to take.”

Northam added: “If you wish to pursue additional restrictions on houses of worship, barber shops, or hair salons, I encourage you to work with your City Council to take the emergency actions allowed by the Richmond charter, which authorizes the City to ‘make and enforce all regulations necessary to preserve and promote public health and sanitation and protect the inhabitants of the city from contagious, infectious or other diseases.’ ”

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said he will allow the state’s Washington suburbs to move into Phase 1 of reopening later this week, two weeks after most of the state.

The region that includes Fairfax, Arlington, Prince William and Loudoun counties, as well as Alexandria, was not included in the state’s May 15 reopening. But regional officials say criteria have now been met to support a gradual reopening that would include restaurants, barber shops and beauty salons operating with significant restrictions.

Northam said he will mandate mask-wearing in indoor public spaces and plans to allow Northern Virginia and Accomack County to enter Phase 1 on Friday.

“Everyone will need to wear a face cover when inside in a public place starting this Friday,” Northam said.

That covers stores, barbershops, restaurants, government buildings, public transportation — and possibly private businesses that do not serve the public, such as a law offices. The state’s Department of Labor and Industry is working on regulations that would apply in those circumstances, said Northam’s chief of staff, Clark Mercer. The order will not apply to outdoor public spaces such as sidewalks, parks or the beach.

Northam opened his news briefing Tuesday by apologizing for mingling with people on the Virginia Beach boardwalk without a mask on Saturday. He said he had traveled to the beach to meet with the mayor, thank “beach ambassadors” charged with enforcing health restrictions, and speak to reporters.

“Some well-wishers recognized me,” he said. “I’ve always tried to accommodate people that want to take pictures. … I was not prepared because my mask was in the car. I take full responsibility. People held me accountable and I appreciate that. We’re all forming new habits and routines and we’re all adjusting to this new normal.”

In response to a reporter’s question, Northam confirmed that he plans to allow Northern Virginia and Accomack County to ease restrictions at the end of the week but said he will formally announce the decision Wednesday. He said he was still in talks with the city of Richmond, the only other jurisdiction that has not eased restrictions. Mayor Levar Stoney (D) has asked to enter into a “modified Phase 1,” said Northam, who declined to say if he favors the idea.

Northam also indicated that he might not be ready to move the rest of the state into Phase 2 on Friday. “If you do the math, we’ve only been in Phase 1 a little more than a week,” he said, noting the long incubation period for covid-19.

Enforcement of the mask mandate will be up to the State Department of Health for businesses that are open to the public, and the Department of Labor and Industry for work sites that are closed to the public. Law enforcement will not have a role, Northam said.

“This is about people’s health,” Northam said. “It’s not about locking people up in jail.”

Both departments have the power to revoke the operating licenses for businesses that do not follow the mandate, but Mercer said state officials would first talk to them to seek compliance, and then issue a warning. License revocation would be reserved for businesses where the order is “blatantly” ignored, Mercer said.

Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky said that businesses will not be liable the actions of their customers, only their employees. She said it is possible that an individual could face a misdemeanor charge, which health officials could seek through a magistrate. But Mercer said the state hopes it doesn’t come to that.

“The criminal code is not the place you want this enforced,” Mercer said. He suggested that the General Assembly might consider legislation to give the governor the option to impose a civil penalty in late summer, when it gathers for a special budget session.

The small radio that Jose Mardoqueo Reyes owned as a boy during El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s served as a lifeline to the outside world, where people could still dance and play soccer without worrying about getting shot.

Mardoqueo Reyes later found that more peaceful life in Washington, D.C., arriving as an 18-year-old war refugee with a love for the power of radio. That love would eventually make him a well-known Internet radio presence in the region’s Spanish-speaking world before he died of covid-19 on May 12. He was 54.

“He had this passion for radio that never left,” said his daughter, Ingrid Reyes. “He wanted to sound like the guys he heard on his radio, and be how important they were.”

Mardoqueo Reyes founded the Radio Cuscatleca USA website in 2011. The website was a passion project that he tended to in addition to his full-time job as a construction worker in the District, where he and his wife, Blanca Bonilla, raised three children — Mardo, 28, Ingrid, 26, and Jason, 21.

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A federal judge said Sunday that precautions meant to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus at a D.C. psychiatric hospital must remain in place after 13 patients and one staff member died of the disease.

Last year, patients at St. Elizabeths Hospital, the District’s public psychiatric facility, filed a federal lawsuit faulting its response after legionella bacteria, which can cause Legionnaires’ disease, was discovered in the hospital’s water system. Though no patients or staff were sickened by legionella, the lawsuit was expanded in April as the coronavirus began to spread in the facility. Patients said St. Elizabeths had not done enough to protect them from covid-19.

Most St. Elizabeths patients under quarantine after four coronavirus deaths

After issuing temporary restraining orders in the case designed to improve the hospital’s response to the pandemic, Judge Randolph Moss issued a preliminary injunction Sunday extending mandated changes. The judge noted that about 1 in 20 patients has died of covid-19 and more than 1 in 3 patients have been infected with the coronavirus.

The hospital must isolate patients exposed to the coronavirus, the order said, ensure staff work on no more than one unit per day to prevent the virus from spreading throughout the facility, and take other precautions. The District must also file a status report by June 8 on whether it will implement other changes recommended by health experts consulted in the case.

D.C. officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an interview, Kaitlin Banner, deputy legal director of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee, which represents the patients, said the water crisis and the covid-19 pandemic show St. Elizabeths “does not have an emergency plan,” and that the protections ordered by the court must remain in place indefinitely.

“The public health emergency is nowhere near over,” she said. “We don’t foresee a point in time anytime soon where this is no longer required.”

Retailers in the city of Baltimore will be able to offer curbside pickup, much like restaurants, under a modification to its stay-at-home order, Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young (D) announced Tuesday.

Shoppers can receive orders curbside starting Wednesday morning. Baltimore, one of the state’s hardest-hit jurisdictions, opted out of the plan of Gov. Larry Hogan (R) to gradually reopen the state two weeks ago.

“After consulting with our health professionals, we believe that this first-step of re-opening can be done carefully and safely,” Young said in a statement.

Young also said Tuesday that he is taking proactive steps to help restaurants, which have been limited to deliveries and curbside pickup, to reopen in the future with outdoor seating. Young created the Outdoor Seating Relief Program, which he said is designed to prepare the city for “the eventual resumption of seating at restaurants.”

Under the program, the permitting approval process for outdoor seating will be shortened and application fees will be waived or rebated. Typically, it could take about three months to receive approval. Young said the process will now take less than a week.

Retail stores, barber shops and beauty salons can reopen in Howard County on Friday morning, County Executive Calvin Ball (D) announced Tuesday.

Howard, which remained largely shut down after Gov. Larry Hogan (R) gave the green light for counties to gradually reopen earlier this month, is the latest Maryland government to announce plans to lift restrictions designed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Under the new county order, retail stores, barber shops and beauty salons can operate at 50 percent capacity. Houses of worship will be able to hold outdoor services with up to 250 people. Indoor services will still be limited to 10 people.

Ball said Tuesday during a news conference that the county was not ready to reopen two weeks ago because it was dealing with an increase in use of intensive care beds in its hospitals. Those numbers have since declined, he said.

“While we are pleased with the progress we are seeing, we must not become complacent as we enter new phases of reopening,” Ball said. “As we begin to lift restrictions, we will continue to keep a close eye on our data and ease or tighten restrictions as needed.”

County leaders have raised alarm about Hogan’s decision to cede authority to local leaders on reopening. They say a community-based approach has led to a patchwork of rules statewide, creating chaos.

Loudoun County Public Schools is switching its graduation plans to small, in-person ceremonies after facing complaints that virtual celebrations slated to take place in June were insufficient to honor graduating high school seniors.

Under the new plan, expected to be announced at a board meeting Tuesday evening, high schools in the Northern Virginia district will set up a stage and allow students to enter one at a time to receive their diplomas. Students can be accompanied by up to five family members, and social distancing will be enforced throughout.

The revision comes after significant blowback from hundreds of parents and at least one school board member, Beth Barts (Leesburg), who publicly lamented the district’s graduation plans on Facebook.

A presentation announcing the shift in strategy reads: “Feedback … indicates the desire to hold in-person ceremonies. There is a clear desire.”

Superintendent Eric Williams had initially promised that the district, which serves 84,000, would hold in-person graduation ceremonies “when it is safe to do so.” In a mid-April letter to high school seniors, Williams did not give an exact timeline, saying that officials did not have sufficient information to predict a date when the pandemic might subside, permitting a gathering he vowed would be “as traditional as possible.”

“We are committing to in-person graduation ceremonies because you have waited for your graduation ceremony for many years,” Williams wrote. “You have earned a joyous experience.”

In the meantime, he wrote, each high school would come up with its own version of a virtual celebration, to be planned by principals in concert with students.

As the virtual graduation drew nearer, however, angry parents called the superintendent’s plan inadequate. In an online petition that had garnered 1,700 signatures as of Tuesday morning, they called on the school system to hold modified in-person celebrations in the summer — perhaps by convening a smaller number of people.

The revised graduation plans ask smaller schools to hold their in-person ceremonies between June 8 and 19, while larger schools will hold them between June 8 and 24, according to the presentation. All graduating seniors will have time to take photos in front of an auditorium, stadium or school building. Previously planned virtual celebrations, meanwhile, will continue as scheduled.

After learning of Loudoun’s revised plans, Barts posted on Facebook that she felt satisfied.

“Our voices,” she wrote, “were heard!”