With COVID-19 public health restrictions long gone, restaurants, museums and even large arenas have thrown open their doors to full crowds of people who have embraced the ability to resume life as they had known it.
The Massachusetts Statehouse, however, remains largely closed except to some state employees and the media, and House Speaker Ron Mariano, for one, remains concerned about the virus spreading inside the building.
"I mean, I'm very concerned as we talk about reopening the Statehouse, you know, we have a lot of folks in here who have been vaccinated, but once you open the Statehouse it becomes, it is not only a place of work, it's a museum," Mariano told Bloomberg Baystate Business during a late afternoon interview on Thursday.
Mariano continued: "And you can have people walking through here and you don't know who's vaccinated and who isn't. And so these are all concerns that we have to puzzle through as we try to deal with reopening and going forward and it's the same with the schools and same with everything else."
State officials reported 586 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, after reporting more than 2,000 new infections of the previous four days combined. The seven-day average positivity rate stands at 1.53 percent.
The Senate announced plans this month to welcome staff back into the Statehouse "in a hybrid manner" after Labor Day. Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka said in June that the Legislature is working on a plan aimed at "returning employees and the public safely to the State House in the fall."
After 457 new cases were reported on Wednesday, Mariano, a former school teacher, expressed concerns about outbreaks that are continuing to take place with a sizeable segment of the population still unvaccinated.
"The uptick is kind of frightening," he said. "This is got me very concerned, especially as we talk about school openings and things. We're very lucky to have had a great vaccination program and where we have most of our folks vaccinated, but we still have to deal with these outbreaks. And I for one am very cautious about public safety and people getting vaccinated. I think we have to continue in our efforts to make sure people get the vaccination."
Two aides to Spilka, whose office controls the Senate Reading Room, told the News Service that reporters would be required to wear masks there Monday afternoon when Mariano, Spilka and Gov. Charlie Baker are set to meet in-person privately and then with reporters at the Statehouse. Masks continue to be mandatory within the Senate suite, including the Reading Room and the Senate Chamber, under the branch's emergency rules.
