ANNAPOLIS, Md. — After one year, three months and ten days, Governor Larry Hogan has decided to lift Maryland's COVID-19 State of Emergency.
All emergency orders will officially come to an end on July 1.
READ MORE:A Year of COVID-19 in Maryland
With that comes a whole new chapter of challenges for Maryland residents.
Many protections will be removed including eviction moratoriums, and extensions for expired driver’s licenses and registration plates.
To give citizens time to adapt, Hogan is imposing a 45 day grace period before enforcement resumes August 15.
The Governor has already said federal unemployment benefits would start being cut off next month, in an attempt to get more people back to work, where many employers have been struggling to fill positions.
That decision has been met with fierce criticism from many local and state Democratic leaders.
SEE ALSO: Unions, politicians rally for unemployment benefits to stay while many employers look for workers
As the state of emergency expires, so does mask requirements.
Schools, camps, and child care facilities will no longer be legally obligated to implement mask wearing procedures, although private businesses and other workplaces can set their own policy.
“While the end of the state of emergency is an important final step in our recovery from COVID-19, it does not mean that this virus and its variants no longer pose any threat,” said Hogan.
The news comes the same day the U.S. surpassed 600,000 COVID-19 related deaths -- 9,472 of which were in Maryland.
Over 70 percent of adults in the state have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
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