Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Frustrated by Lack of Coronavirus Tests, Maryland Got 500,000 From South Korea

Facing shortages, Gov. Larry Hogan and his wife, Yumi Hogan, negotiated with suppliers in South Korea to obtain the kits. “It should not have been this difficult,” he said.

Video
bars
0:00/1:02
-0:00

transcript

Maryland Governor Secures 500,000 Coronavirus Tests From South Korea

Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland announced the receipt of 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korean suppliers, a deal negotiated by him and his wife, Yumi Hogan.

This weekend, we took an exponential, game-changing step forward on our large-scale testing initiative. We’ve been quietly working, for a number of weeks, on a confidential project called Operation Enduring Friendship. On Saturday, the first lady and I stood on the tarmac at BWI airport to welcome the first ever Korean air passenger plane, a Boeing 777, which had no passengers, but which was carrying a very important payload of LabGun Covid-19 PCR test kits from a South Korean company called Lab Genomics, which will now give Maryland the capability of performing a half a million coronavirus tests.

Video player loading
Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland announced the receipt of 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korean suppliers, a deal negotiated by him and his wife, Yumi Hogan.CreditCredit...Susan Walsh/Associated Press

When President Trump told governors that they needed to step up their efforts to secure medical supplies, Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland took the entreaty seriously and negotiated with suppliers in South Korea to obtain coronavirus test kits.

“The No. 1 problem facing us is lack of testing,” said Mr. Hogan, a Republican, who has been among the many critics of the Trump administration’s repeated claims that states have adequate testing provided by the federal government. “We can’t open up our states without ramping up testing.”

In recent days, his wife, Yumi Hogan, a Korean immigrant who speaks fluent Korean, had been on the phone in the middle of the night helping to secure the final deal with two labs to sell Maryland the tests.

“Luckily we had a very strong relationship with Korea,” Mr. Hogan said. “But it should not have been this difficult.”

On Saturday, a Korean Air flight arrived at Baltimore-Washington International Airport carrying 5,000 test kits, which officials said would give the state the ability to make 500,000 new tests. The Food and Drug Administration and other agencies gave their seal of approval for the kits as the plane was landing.

“I was frosted because my team was saying that the F.D.A. approval was going to hold it up,” Mr. Hogan said in a telephone interview. “I didn’t care and was going to get the tests anyway.”

So far, Maryland has conducted 71,577 tests for the virus, and nearly 14,000 infections have been recorded, a number that continues to rise. More than 500 people have died in the state.

A number of South Korean vendors were considered for the new test kits, and ultimately the state went with LabGenomics.

Mr. Hogan, Ms. Hogan and a group of state officials greeted the flight to receive the kits on Saturday. The new tests, once they have passed muster in two local labs, will be distributed to the testing centers the state has set up in sporting fields, repurposed vehicle emissions testing centers and other locations.

“We want to get to the point where we can test as many people as possible,” Mr. Hogan said, noting that the state, like most others, has been limited to testing only the very sick and emergency and health care workers.

Expanded testing capacity will go to high-priority areas, such as nursing and group homes, expanded drive-through sites, primary care practices and urgent care centers.

Other states, desperate for things like personal protective equipment and other medical gears, have moved to acquire it, often stealthily, from other nations.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence said there was “a sufficient capacity of testing across the country today for any state in America” to help the nation emerge from the coronavirus shutdown, something that Mr. Hogan and other governors from both parties disputed.

Jennifer Steinhauer has been a reporter for The New York Times since 1994. She has worked on the Metro, Business and National desk, and served as City Hall bureau chief and Los Angeles bureau chief before moving to Washington in 2010. She is the author of a novel, two cookbooks and the upcoming book "The Firsts" the story of the women of the 116th Congress. More about Jennifer Steinhauer

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT