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Baker: COVID 'Pretty Much Over' In Massachusetts - With An Asterisk

BOSTON (CBS) -- Is COVID over in Massachusetts? That's what Gov. Charlie Baker was asked in a news conference Friday, as he announced that the state is ready to drop all coronavirus restrictions this weekend.

"Unless something very odd happens, I would say that it is pretty much over," Baker said. "But I've learned with the COVID virus, that the last thing you should ever do is presume you know everything."

Baker said that he would "put an asterisk" on definitively saying that the pandemic is behind Massachusetts.

"But I do believe that it is certainly on the run in a big way," Baker said. "And given the data as it currently exists right now, Massachusetts is at a place where we can lift these restrictions and do so with a fairly high degree of confidence that people have done the things that we needed to do to beat this thing down."

As of Thursday, there were 253 people hospitalized in the state for a coronavirus-related illness. It's estimated that there are 7,843 active cases in Massachusetts.

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