Here’s what Charlie Baker said in his pre-New Year’s coronavirus press conference
"The virus is very much still with us and will be with us for the next few months."
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Gov. Charlie Baker closed out 2020 with one last COVID-19 press conference Wednesday — and what may be a familiar message to Massachusetts residents ahead of the New Year’s holiday.
On the penultimate day of the year, Baker reminded residents of the rules and guidelines discouraging private gatherings with people outside their immediate social circle. Or as Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders put it, “Practice bubble fidelity, celebrate small, and see you in 2021.”
“As we approach New Years to close out 2020 — finally,” Baker said, hitting his fists on podium in the the State House auditorium, “we’re again urging everyone, if they can, to stay home. Please don’t host big New Year’s gatherings at your own home and and do try to spend the time with people you live with.”
Baker said any gatherings with people outside one’s household are best kept “outside” and “brief.”
“Wear a mask, be smart, and recognize and understand that, in many respects, the fastest spread in this particular situation is going to be ones that involve informal circumstances and situations where people do let their guard down,” he said.
His comments comes amid concerns that Massachusetts could be on the verge of another post-holiday increase in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Logan Airport in Boston saw the highest number of daily travelers since the beginning of the pandemic in the run-up to Christmas, though levels were still down significantly compared to previous years.
The Baker administration had urged residents against celebrating the winter holidays with people outside their households, after Massachusetts saw a significant increase coronavirus rates after Thanksgiving.
“We’ve obviously been pleading with everyone, for weeks, to stay home for the holidays, just for this year,” Baker said Wednesday. “We also know how difficult that can be for everyone, especially given all of the sacrifices that people have been making for the better part of the past 10 months. So to everyone who did stay home, I just want to say thank you on behalf of the administration and many of the folks who work in our healthcare community, who continue to be among the most challenged during this difficult period of time.”
After ordering an incremental rollback of the state’s reopening plan and tightening face covering requirements for restaurants, gyms, and offices, Baker also reduced capacity limits for most businesses last week to 25 percent of their maximum legal occupancy in response to the heightened COVID-19 levels.
Still, he said Wednesday that rising COVID levels are “putting significant strain on our healthcare system” and officials will continue to “evaluate the data to determine if any future steps should be taken.”
The post-Thanksgiving surge in cases — which averaged more than 4,500 new daily infections a day in early December — appeared to slow slightly over the past week or so. The state reported 3,659 new cases on Tuesday. However, the seven-day average positive test rate in Massachusetts — after hovering around 6 percent for the first three weeks of the month — has begun to climb again, ticking up to 7.6 percent on Tuesday.
Massachusetts has also seen a steady rise in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 over the past two months. The state reported 2,259 hospitalizations Tuesday and hospitals across the state are at between 80 percent and 90 percent capacity. Beginning this past Saturday, hospitals were ordered to cancel or postpone all non-emergency elective procedures, as long as the delay in treatment would not put the patient’s health at risk.
State officials also announced a $668 million relief plan last week aimed toward small businesses, like restaurants, gyms, and entertainment venues, that have been been hit hardest by the pandemic.
Despite early snags in the national COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Massachusetts began vaccinating residents and staff at hard-hit long-term care facilities on Monday, in addition to frontline healthcare workers, with their first of the two-dose shots.
Baker did acknowledge the hiccups in vaccine distribution, which has drawn criticism from public health experts and recently resulted in reduced shipments to Massachusetts. But he said he didn’t expect them to affect the longterm timeline. State officials hope to incrementally broaden the pool of eligible people to individuals over the age of 65 and essential workers by February, before reaching the broader public sometime in the spring.
“It can’t happen fast enough,” Baker said Wednesday. “That said, we were expecting to get about 300,000 doses by the end of the calendar year, and we’re going to get about 300,000 doses by the end of the calendar year. I said, when this whole thing was first being discussed about three or four weeks ago, that I expected the rollout would be bumpy. And it certainly lived up to my expectations with respect to that.”
While he was glad to reach the end of 2020, the governor reiterated that the pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon, even as vaccination efforts get underway.
“I know what tomorrow night is; it’s New Year’s Eve,” he said. “And I know that the start of the New Year, for all of us, is a chance to breathe a deep sigh of relief, but I would just ask everybody to continue to stay vigilant, to keep your guard up, and to recognize and understand that the virus is very much still with us and will be with us for the next few months.”
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