BAKER ASSURES SCHOOLS
Gov says 318 of 351 cities, towns can reopen safely
Roughly 90% of Massachusetts communities are doing well enough in their fight against the coronavirus to send students back to school this fall, Gov. Charlie Baker said as he unveiled a new color-coded map giving 318 of the 351 cities and towns a green light on reopening.
“If you’re in a green or a white community, I can’t imagine a good reason not to go back — whether it’s fulltime or in some sort of a hybrid — because, for all intents and purposes, you meet all the benchmarks that are being used across the country,” Baker said Tuesday.
The map uses stoplight colors of red, yellow and green to rate all 351 municipalities as higher, moderate or lower risk based on the 14-day average of daily coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents.
Twenty-nine earned a yellow rating, meaning the average number of daily coronavirus cases was four to eight per 100,000 residents. Four cities — Lynn, Revere, Chelsea and Everett — were colored red, meaning they are at the highest risk for an outbreak.
“The good news here should not get lost — 318 communities here in Massachusetts are at or below national benchmarks with respect to containing
COVID-19 in their communities,” Baker said.
Baker’s comments came as public school districts across the state are still finalizing their reopening plans, choosing between inperson learning, remote or a hybrid of the two. The deadline to submit their final plans is Friday.
It’s the first clear guidance related to coronavirus metrics individual cities and towns have heard to hang their reopening plans on since the pandemic shuttered schools across the state in March.
But as progress continues to be made in many areas of the state, coronavirus cases continue to creep up in some places and Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders urged people across the state to “respect the virus” and to be more vigilant in wearing masks, staying 6 feet apart, hand washing and staying away from others when sick in order to stop the spread of the highly infectious virus.
“The virus doesn’t care about boundaries and it certainly takes every opening any of us give it,” Baker said, noting “too many people are letting their guard down” lately.
The governor pledged “additional support” to higher-risk communities and clarified the role of a newly formed COVID-19 enforcement and intervention team. Efforts will be “locally driven” and the squads will provide resources including targeted interventions and inspections of businesses and events, enforcement of fines for violating coronavirus-era orders and targeted public messaging to encourage compliance, according to Baker’s office.
Baker also said his “biggest concern” over President Trump’s weekend executive order to add $400 more to the weekly paychecks for people on unemployment is that it would take money from FEMA, which the governor said should be “used to reimburse costs from March, April and May.”
The plan would require states to contribute 25% — money Baker said the state would have to take out of the CARES Act aid.