Amid reports that President Donald Trump would like to reopen the economy by May 1, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said Monday that he has begun to think about how to reawaken the state from its "self-induced coma," but declined to share many details as he worries that people might start to let their guards down.
Massachusetts has entered what state public health officials expect to be a peak period for new COVID-19 infections and patients requiring acute care in hospitals. On Sunday alone, 2,615 new cases were reported by the Department of Public Health and 1,392 cases were reported Monday.
The state Monday also announced 88 new deaths attributable to the disease, bringing the total to 844.
"We have had conversations with a variety of folks in our economic and health care communities, and in our public health community, about what it might look like once we get past this, and we will talk about that at some point, but I really don't want people to start to think today that this is over," Baker said Monday, at his regular press briefing.
As wind and rain battered parts of Massachusetts and knocked out power in some areas, Baker opened the briefing by discussing the administration's work with utilities to make sure crews can operate safely, and also ensure that hospitals and other treatment centers don't lose power.
The governor also reminded that the daily COVID-19 case counts indicate "the days and weeks ahead will be difficult ones" as he highlighted his administration's efforts to help manufacturers transition to making critical personal protective equipment like gowns, face shields and swabs.
Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said hospitals are currently at about 50 percent capacity, with just 36 patients at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center field hospital and 10 at the DCU Center in Worcester. Massachusetts has received an additional 200 ventilators from the federal government, which are being inspected and could be deployed as soon as Monday night, officials said.
The governor did, however, lay out some flag posts and guidelines for residents to look for as they wonder when life might start to return to some semblance of normal.
"I don't think anyone thinks you can just flip the switch at any point in the not too distant future given the fact that the surge is actually not the same everywhere. It's a wave that's going to play out across the country at different points in time," Baker said.
Later Monday, Massachusetts was welcomed as an additional member of a coalition of northeastern states that will discuss when and how to reopen the regional economy. The governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Delaware announced the partnership, with Massachusetts added as an additional participant late in the afternoon.
At his briefing, Baker said the state will be looking to make sure it is past the peak surge of infections and can identify business sectors that will be able reopen easiest with "safe standards" for distancing and other safety measures. Public health experts, the governor said, have also recommended that distancing measures not be relaxed until the spread of the disease has been reduced to a ratio of 1:1, meaning one person is not infecting multiple others.
Finally, Baker said the state and federal government must be doing "a ton of testing" to both understand the progression of the virus and "make people believe that it's safe to go back to doing some of the things they did before and all the rest."
Asked if he was concerned about getting "trumped" by Trump when it comes to the economy, Baker said he was on a call earlier in the day with Vice President Mike Pence and other governors and the conversation with the White House centered around testing.
"Which says to me that they get the fact that we need to do a lot more testing a lot more quickly for surveillance purposes, if nothing else," Baker said.
On the topic of testing, Baker also said that the National Guard teams the state has deployed to test residents of nursing homes and long-care facilities — which account for 45 percent of all COVID-19 cases — has tested more than 3,700 people on-site at more than 220 facilities.
The program was expanded last week to include assisted living residences and Department of Developmental Services group homes, including Wrentham and Hogan. Facilities with trained staff can now also order kits to conduct testing on their own, and over the weekend the state shipped out 4,500 tests to 35 facilities.
"We'll continue to learn and adapt our approach to support these critical facilities and the people who live and work there as we move forward," Baker said.
This story was written by Matt Murphy of the State House News Service, with some additional language from NEPR's Sam Hudzik.
