ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- Gov. Larry Hogan began talking about a plan to slowly reopen Maryland as the state reels from the coronavirus pandemic, but he urged caution.

Gov. Hogan said at a press conference Wednesday:

"The worst possible thing we could do is to take action too quickly and then have that spike so we look like New York—and we have thousands of people die and hundreds of thousands of people sick and we overload our hospital system because then it's very hard to get that genie back in the bottle. It is too soon to say we're going to start opening everything. We're not going to flip a light switch. But it's not too soon to start laying out what that would look like and maybe start considering when the first steps might take place."

Hogan said a successful recovery will need expanded testing, more personal protective equipment, available surge hospital beds and better tracking of those who have tested positive.

Gov. Hogan announced that over the last several weeks, state officials have been consulting with doctors and public health experts serving on the Coronavirus Response Team to develop a roadmap for the reopening of Maryland and the state economy.

"Fortunately, because of the early and aggressive actions and because of the extraordinary sacrifices of Marylanders, we are now in a position to move from containment and mitigation to planning the gradual rollout of our recovery phase. There are some very real reasons for hope and optimism right now and there is clearly a light at the end of this tunnel, but exactly how and when we will get to that light is going to be up to each and every one of us. Right now while our numbers are still climbing and we are still heading up that curve, not down, it is absolutely critical for Marylanders to stay home, to continue avoiding crowds and gatherings, and to aggressively practice social distancing."

Gov. Hogan laid out four building blocks for a recovery plan:

1. Expanding testing capacity
2. Increasing hospital surge capacity
3. Ramping up supply of PPE
4. Building a robust contact tracing operation

The number of state workers handling Maryland's contact tracing operation will quadruple—from 250 to 1,000. Those health investigators look into anyone exposed to a COVID-19 patient.

"We will need to ramp up considerably to reach every single COVID-positive patient in the state, and that is the goal to suppress this virus," said Maryland's Deputy Health Secretary Fran Phillips.

For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.