Baker: ‘Keep doing what we’ve been doing’
Wants state to avoid any coronavirus slippage
Take the virus seriously — and don’t hesitate to take your governor-prescribed walk, Gov. Charlie Baker says.
“If you can be outdoors instead of indoors — go for it,” Baker said in a beachside press conference on Friday. “And obviously, as we’ve said many times before, wipe surfaces, disinfect and respect the virus.”
Baker, speaking at Assawompset Pond in Middleboro,
said, “The outdoors, and especially the natural outdoors, can be a real respite and relief for people during periods of high anxiety, which is obviously what a lot of people have been and how they’ve felt over the course of the past 120 days or so.”
Baker said the daily COVID-19 numbers — 21 more deaths and 216 new cases on just under 13,000 tests, with fewer people hospitalized and in the ICU — continue to show positive trends. Other states, though, mostly in the south and west, have seen huge spikes as the country reopens.
“We all need to keep doing what we’ve been doing if we’re all going to be successful here,” Baker said.
Baker was at the “great pond” in Middleboro to take a look at the area that’s benefiting from a sustainability grant from his administration, and where local leaders have banded together to try to better the area. He talked about the need to keep a focus on the climate resiliency of the Bay State’s rivers, lakes and streams. Baker then rhapsodized about culverts, the little streams carried through tunnels.
“I say all the time that culverts are not sexy,” Baker said, but he added that over the next couple decades “we’re probably going to to have to either upgrade, expand or dramatically improve the quality of practically all the culverts in the commonwealth.”