What Determines When Massachusetts Is Ready For The Next Reopening Phase?
BOSTON (CBS) -- The progression of the four-phased approach to reopen Massachusetts during the coronavirus pandemic is dependent upon key health metrics. Gov. Charlie Baker released the plan's details Monday.
"We'll progress through four phases, opening more sectors of the economy and activities, only when the public health data indicate it's appropriate to do so. Each phase will last at least three weeks, but may last longer if the public health data doesn't support moving forward," said Baker.
Six public health indicators established by the Coronavirus Command Center will be released to the public once a week. They are: COVID-19 positive test rate, number of individuals who died from COVID-19, number of patients with COVID-19 in hospitals, healthcare system readiness, testing capacity, and contract tracing capabilities.
If the indicator is trending positive, it will be green; if it is in progress, it will be yellow, and if it is trending negative, it will be red.
"Today, two of the indicators are green: healthcare system readiness and the decline in COVID positive test rates. As I said, across the state, we have 30% availability for both ICU and medical-surgical beds, individual hospitals may vary. And we're only using approximately one-third of our current testing capacity, which is why that is also green. The others are in progress. Of course, until we only have a handful or no deaths, we can never say that we are trending positive in that area. In order to sustain the progress to date and to move us forward in the reopening of our Commonwealth, all of us must continue to be vigilant about hygiene, wearing face coverings and engaging in social distancing. These very important public health and safety measures are our best tools at this time, to protect ourselves, our co-workers, our families and our communities," said Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders.
"The process associated with these phases is a function of how we do and how we do is a function of how we deal with respect to managing the public health issues, as we begin this reopening process," said Baker. "People need to understand they need to have a face covering if they can't keep their distance from other people, keeping distance from other people would be best, wash your hands, hygiene, all that stuff, surfaces and all the rest and recognize and understand that we are going to pay attention to that public health data as we move forward, and it's going to be critically important for people to continue to do the things that they've been doing to get us to this point, over the course of the past 60 days."
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito added, "While we have made clear that the public health data and guidance will dictate the timeline of moving into new phases. It is important that we continue to listen to and support our businesses across this Commonwealth."
