Gov. Baker takes further steps to reopen economy
Indoor performances and recreational activities such as laser tag can resume next week in Massachusetts communities with lower COVID-19 transmission rates, and many businesses will also be permitted to increase their capacities, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday.
On the same day that a coalition of public health experts and workers’ rights advocates urged Baker to implement additional precautions amid growing COVID-19 spread, the governor signed an executive order pushing Massachusetts forward in its phased reopening plan.
His order will loosen a range of restrictions, but only in communities deemed “lower risk” based on three weeks of municipal-level infection data that the administration uses to produce its colorcoded risk charts.
“We’ve learned a lot from watching what’s going on in other states, especially in the northeast region, and similar changes elsewhere have not led to significant transmission there,” Baker said at a press conference.
Starting on Monday, in those lower-risk communities, indoor performance venues can reopen at 50% capacity, topping out at 250 people, while outdoor performance venues already open can increase their capacity to the same levels.
Many other recreational activities can also resume, including trampoline parks, obstacle courses, roller rinks and laser tag, at half capacity in the same list of approved cities and towns.
The order also includes changes for businesses that are already operational. Retail stores can open their fitting rooms, while gyms, museums, libraries, and both driving and flight schools can increase the allowable numbers of patrons to half of their capacity
utdoor gatherings hosted in public settings can expand to 100 people, up from 50, in lower-risk communities but must remain capped at 50 people in any city or town deemed high risk. Other gathering limits will not change, staying flat at 25 people indoors and 50 people at private events outside.
The updates will not take effect in all cities and towns. To qualify, a community must have eight or fewer cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents — color-coded as gray, green or yellow on the map that the Department of Public Health produces — in three consecutive weekly reports.
Any municipality that surpasses that threshold, which earns a red designation, must keep current restrictions in place starting next week.
Twenty-one communities have been coded red in at least one of the past three weekly DPH reports: Chatham, Chelsea, Dedham, Everett, Framingham, Holliston, Lawrence, Lynn, Lynnfield, Marlborough, Methuen, Monsoon, Nantucket, New Bedford, Plainville, Revere, Saugus, Tyngsboro, Winthrop, Worcester and Wrentham.
The administration has deemed cities and towns in the middle, yellow-colored category as “moderate risk,” but Tuesday’s executive order essentially flattens the definitions into two groups: high risk, and everything else under the term “lower-risk.”
Baker said Tuesday that “a bunch of bouncing back and forth between green and yellow” was responsible. “One nursing home outbreak, one football party, one thing, because you’re basically going from under four (cases per 100,000 residents) to over four, turns you from green to yellow,” Baker said.
With the announcement, Massachusetts is poised to enter the second step of Phase 3 in the administration’s reopening plan. The state has been frozen in the first step since August, when Baker imposed a pause amid a spike in confirmed cases of the highly infectious coronavirus. Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy touted Tuesday’s development as a “major milestone.”
The decision by Baker to push ahead with further reopening the economy ran counter to the message a coalition of public health, education and workers’ rights advocates delivered Tuesday.
The Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity sent a letter to the governor signed by close to 30 organizations and well over 100 individuals asking him to refocus his administration on controlling the coronavirus and protecting essential workers from exposure risks.
Their list of requests included stronger job protections for workers so that they can stay home if they are sick and still get paid, investments in rental assistance, more detailed public health data, and support for schools to upgrade ventilation in older buildings and provide staff with training and protective equipment.
“Governor Baker, we know you are under pressure from some business interests, but we also know you can do better. We are asking you to show leadership that looks ahead, and protects public health, with comprehensive policy,” said Lady Lawrence, from Housing=health.
Facing multiple questions about additional reopening amid those warnings, Baker defended his decision by touting the state’s “national-leading levels” of testing and its isolation and contact tracing efforts.