State prepares to open
Testing website created; one-day business delay
A statewide virtual map has been launched so anyone with coronavirus symptoms can quickly find a testing site as Massachusetts prepares to open up again beginning next week.
Gov. Charlie Baker announced the Mass.gov web portal at Friday’s COVID-19 daily briefing, where he repeated his administration will roll out a phased plan for reopening the economy on Monday. The map pinpoints 250-plus testing sites, including CVS drivethru stops that just opened.
Testing will remain a key component of getting back to work, Baker added, saying businesses need to “reimagine workplaces” and try to keep employees at home as much as possible.
Baker said some of the state’s largest employers, including Raytheon, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Takeda, Wayfair and Mass Mutual, have joined in allowing workers to remain at home or work in shifts.
He added he’s also extending by 24 hours the order closing nonessential businesses in the state, from midnight Sunday to midnight Monday, to allow for the phased rolling out of his back-towork plan to be announced Monday.
He urged everyone to keep wearing masks, wash their hands often, stay home if they feel sick and get tested if they fear they’ve come in close contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.
He also knocked the idea of a socalled “immunity card,” slamming the federal government for not rolling out guidance on antibody testing and what the results mean.
“I would really like the feds to do the work and sign off on it,” he said of varying reports circulating on what having COVID-19 antibodies in your system means. Baker said he is not sure if that makes someone immune or not.
He worries about antibodies and asymptomatic coronavirus carriers comes on the same day Boston announced that one out of 10 city residents tested in a survey with Massachusetts General Hospital have coronavirus antibodies, and more than 2% currently have the virus.
Baker refused to budge on sharing more details on reopening the economy — an issue that has sparked letters and complaints about the financial pain being felt statewide.
“We’ll have a lot more to say. That has to be dealt with in the context of the rest of the report that gets issued Monday,” Baker said of reopening.
Baker stressed Massachusetts remains one of the “hardest hit states in the country.” But he added signs are pointing to flattening the curve — with health officials reporting hospitalizations dropping from a high of 8% to 3% on Friday.
Baker also said financial help is on the way to cities and towns.