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COVID-19 Restrictions In Mass. Loosen For Dining, Indoor Facilities Despite Warnings On Variants

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker in Salem, Massachusetts, on Thursday, February 25, 2021.
Pat Greenhouse
/
Boston Globe / Pool / State House News Service
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker in Salem, Massachusetts, on Thursday, February 25, 2021.

Massachusetts officials say their COVID-19 vaccination efforts are gaining steam. And a major rollback of restrictions on some businesses begins this week.

Despite the COVID-19 vaccine website being a "lumpy and bumpy" user experience, the state says more than half a million residents are fully vaccinated.

As that percentage of vaccinated folks rises, and the number of cases significantly lowers, Gov. Charlie Baker has lifted more restrictions.

Monday brings big changes for restaurants, in particular.

Matt Murphy of the State House News Service joins us to talk through what's going on as well as the pushback to Baker's plan.

Matt Murphy, State House News Service: Restaurants, like most businesses, have been under capacity limits for how many patrons/customers they can welcome into their spaces. Starting Monday, most businesses will see their capacity increased to 50%.

But for restaurants, no more capacity limits. They will still have to abide by six foot of distancing between tables, masks when you're not seated, no more than six people per table and no longer dining the 90 minutes.

But the capacity limits are gone. And for the first time, the administration is saying the restaurants can have live musical performances. So, if you're that kind of a restaurant, and that is how you bring the customers in, you can return to bring in live music.

So it is a big day for restaurants, and many businesses across the state, as concert halls, indoor performance venues and other types of businesses like roller skating rinks, trampoline parks, other indoor recreation facilities are allowed to open for the first time in months.

But there are public health experts who see risk in opening up too much, too fast, especially with the number of the COVID variants still circulating. They haven't taken hold in Massachusetts, but they do pose a threat.

Carrie Healy, NEPM: The plan also includes allowing crowds at large venues. With baseball season right around the corner, what are the rules for those sorts of events we're looking at?

Yes. Later in the month, Governor Baker says that he is ready to start phase four of reopening. If you go back to May, when the governor first put out his phased reopening strategy, phase four seemed so far off. It was dubbed the "new normal" and it was dependent on vaccines.

But with vaccines here, the governor says the large venues with the capacity of over 5,000 people, that is Fenway Park, TD Garden, Gillette Stadium, can start welcoming fans back into the seats at 12% capacity. So that means about 4,500 fans. As long as the public health metrics stay good, and trend down, we'll be able to go to opening day at Fenway Park on April 1.

Education Commissioner Jeff Riley and the governor of both taken a firm stance on getting youngsters back into classrooms, soon. Many schools have settled on a hybrid model with kids in class a couple of days a week. But Baker and Riley are looking to force elementary schools to get kids back in class full time. What's the strategy?

Education Department Commissioner Riley is going to be seeking this authority from the board, and they've laid out a plan to have kids back learning in person, especially the elementary school grades, by April.

They believe that the health data supports this, that kids are missing out and being harmed too much by continuing to learn remotely. They feel that transmission in schools is actually quite low. It's cases being brought into schools is where we see the numbers, according to the administration.

But this, too, has gotten some pushback. Teachers unions in particular feel that teachers should be prioritized for vaccinations if they are going to be told that they have to be back in the classroom.

Teachers are in the next phase of the vaccine rollout, but that will be a huge group of people. There will be a lot of, again, limited space and difficulty booking appointments. And we continue to hear from lawmakers and teachers that they should be given priority if the focus is going to be on a return to in-person learning.

Switching gears here, a decision was made about a state office last week that is incredibly important, but its rarely making the headlines. The Office of Campaign and Political Finance will get its first new boss in a quarter century, Woburn City Clerk William Campbell. How big a deal is this?

I mean, it is a pretty big deal. And this is the type of job, obviously, that you can see someone hang on to for quite a long time. The last occupant of this office had it for over 25 years.

And this is someone who will make decisions not just on enforcement of campaign finance violations and penalties moving forward, but interpretations of campaign finance law as campaigns get more and more sophisticated and find ways around different rules and regulations.

Here, we have Secretary Galvin agreeing with both the heads of the Republican and Democratic parties on Bill Campbell to take on this role — someone who ran as a Republican against Secretary Galvin. So, an interesting choice, and one to watch as he gets settled into that new office.

Keep up here with Beacon Hill In 5.

Carrie Healy hosts the local broadcast of "Morning Edition" at NEPM. She also hosts the station’s weekly government and politics segment “Beacon Hill In 5” for broadcast radio and podcast syndication.
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