Public Hearing Notice on Board of Health Regulation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Montgomery County and provide guidance on summer camps

For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 8, 2021

ROCKVILLE, Md., April 8, 2021—The Montgomery County Council, sitting as the Board of Health, is scheduled to introduce, hold a public hearing and vote on a Third Amended Board of Health regulation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Montgomery County and provide guidance on summer camps on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, at 9:45 a.m. The deadline to sign up for the public hearing is Monday, April 12 at 5 p.m.

Council President Hucker and Council Vice President Albornoz have proposed amendments to the current Board of Health regulation that would add guidance for the operation of summer camps as follows:

• Only campers from Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. would be permitted to attend;
• Camps must separate participants into groups of 25 for indoor activities and 50 for outdoor activities;
• Members from a group would not be permitted to mix with members of a different group at the camp;
• Each camp would be required to have a COVID Protocol Plan approved by the health officer or the health officer’s designee;
• The plan would be required to include strategies for social distancing and infection control strategies;
• A participant who tests positive or who is in close contact with someone who has tested positive would be sent home or remain in quarantine;
• Sports activities would be required to follow the rules for youth sports;
• Additional requirements for a residential camp would include a cap of 25 persons in a sleeping area with social distancing and infection control strategies; and
• Members of each sleeping group must stay with their group for the entire camp session.

The Council staff report and Board of Health regulation can be viewed here.

To sign up to testify, please click here. If you are not available for the public hearing but want to provide testimony to the Council you can do so by submitting written, audio or video testimony here. The deadline to sign up for the public hearing is Monday, April 12 at 5 p.m.

More information can be found at the Montgomery County Council's webpage at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council.

NOTE: During the Covid-19 state of emergency, the public is not able to be physically present in the Council Hearing Room. Residents who would like to call in to testify at a Council public hearing need to preregister on the Council's web page at https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/calendar.html . Once the public hearing sign up request form is submitted and the public hearing list is created, individuals will receive separate confirmation notifications that include the appropriate phone number to call for the public hearing.

Community members also have the option to provide audio, video and written testimony to the Council using a recently developed online testimony form on the Council's web page which can be found at https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/COUNCIL/PHSignUp.html. The testimony provided with the online option carries the same weight as testimony given at a public hearing. Councilmembers consider all comments as part of their deliberations.

Comments and suggestions are welcome online at http://tinyurl.com/zrbwh5v; via email at [email protected]; by sending regular mail to County Council, 100 Maryland Ave., Rockville, MD 20850. For information or to express an opinion call 240-777-7900.

The meeting will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM) on Xfinity channels 6 and 996, RCN channels 6 and 1056; and FiOS channel 30. Also available live via streaming through the Council website at http://tinyurl.com/z9982v8, Facebook Live (@MontgomeryCountyMdCouncil or @ConcejodelCondadodeMontgomery), or YouTube (@MoCoCouncilMD).

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Release ID: 21-143
Media Contact: Sonya Healy 240-777-7926, Juan Jovel 240-777-7931