Governor Larry Hogan has deployed the National Guard and state police to keep the federal government from seizing the 500,000 COVID-19 tests he acquired from South Korea — and which are now being stored in a secret location
“The National Guard and the State Police are both guarding these tests at an undisclosed location,” Hogan said Thursday during a live video interview with The Washington Post.
“There had been reports of, for example in Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker told the story of his planeload …with masks was basically confiscated by the federal government,” Hogan added.
The governor said it took 22 days to navigate the bureaucracy and secure the half-million masks — and credited his wife, Yumi, who is Korean, for helping land the order.
“We landed it there with a large contingent of Maryland National Guard and Maryland State Police,” Hogan said. “Because this was an enormously valuable payload. It was like Fort Knox to us.
When asked directly in a Washington Post Live interview about whether he was concerned the federal government would seize the shipment of tests, the governor said, “It was a little bit of a concern about trying to get these things and it was a very complicated process.”
