Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said Tuesday that despite rumors to the contrary, the state has no plans to further curtail the activity of residents to limit the spread of COVID as winter approaches.
“There’s … been a lot of misinformation going around about things that are going to get shut down here, there, everywhere, at a moment’s notice,” Baker said. “People have enough stress in their lives without having to deal with the rumor mongering.”
Without citing specific examples, Baker spoke of “the guy your sister knows who used to work with a guy who knew your friend,” adding that this hypothetical individual is “[not] necessarily up to speed” on the state’s plans.
“At this time, the Commonwealth is not planning any additional closures or restrictions,” Baker said. “We’ll continue to follow closely the public-health data, and continue to make decisions based on that. The public will be given — as they have been in almost every instance and circumstance since the beginning of this — clear notice before anything new goes into effect.”
Despite a recent spike in daily confirmed cases that saw statewide numbers exceed the levels they reached last spring, Baker said recent steps taken by his administration—including a renewed stay-at-home advisory and early closures for restaurants and other businesses—have helped control the virus's spread.
“Over the last 10 days, new case growth has, in fact, slowed down,” Baker said. “Also over the last ten days, Massachusetts’ positive test rate has stayed just under four percent. … And while it’s only ten days, the slower case growth and steadier positive rates are an improvement compared to the sharp increases that we saw a few weeks before that.”
On Monday, Massachusetts reported 1166 new cases — a substantial drop from previous days — and just over 29,000 tests administered.
“We continue to lead the nation as a tester, but the volume of tests, the testing sites processed surpassed all of our previous high-water marks,” Baker said.
But while the governor spoke of “light at the end of the tunnel” and “brighter days ahead,” thanks in large part to the imminent arrival of effective COVID vaccines, his tone was not uniformly upbeat.
In December, January, February and March, Baker said, vaccine-distribution efforts will be focused on individuals at high risk due to age, preexisting conditions, or profession.
“It will probably be Q2” — April, May and June — “before just Joe Q. and Jane Q. Citizen would have access to a vaccine,” Baker said.
In addition, the governor announced that he’s increasing the number National Guard rapid-response teams dealing with COVID spikes in nursing homes from 8 to 14, to address spread among staff in the state’s long-term care facilities. And Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said the state was increasing temporary housing to COVID patients who can’t socially distance, upping its capacity from 256 to 351.
Baker also spoke at some length on the spread of COVID in Massachusetts houses of worship, including a large cluster linked to Crossroads Community Church in Fitchburg, and made an impassioned plea for prudent behavior in the coming weeks — at religious services, and in other gatherings with family and friends.
“I get that after ten months of fear and anxiety and tragedy and sacrifice and uncertainty, as we head into this holiday season, the one place most people want to be — for very good reasons — is with their family, participating in many of those rituals which involve formal and in some cases informal gatherings that we all love so much,” Baker said.
“We know that it’s difficult to ask people to modify these time-honored traditions, but COVID has no intention of taking the holiday off. And in many respects, it’s many of those time-honored traditions that create some of the most significant issues with respect to spread.”
