Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem joined Boston Public Radio on Wednesday to discuss the state of emergency declared yesterday in Massachusetts, due to the novel coronavirus.

"[Governor Charlie Baker] is doing the right thing, he's positioning the state because we are just at the beginning," she said. "Brace for the long haul because this is barely the beginning, the numbers will increase significantly."

Declaring Massachusetts to be in a state of emergency won't change people's day to day lives, but will allow easier access to resources if needed, Kayyem said.

"It does free up some resources and the distribution of resources for the governor to do quickly," she said. "If we do this right, five years from now we will talk about this as a really weird, odd period in our country, but we will not look at it as a before and after."

Kayyem is an analyst for CNN, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and faculty chair of the homeland security program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.