Health

Baker: Phased reopening of Massachusetts will be slow

BOSTON — The reopening of Massachusetts will be a slow and steady process, Gov. Charlie Baker said on Wednesday at his daily press briefing. “The last thing we’re going to do is reopen it in a way that fires that virus up again. This is not a virus to be trifled with or disrespected,” he said.

Baker says while he understands many people are ready to reopen businesses, health care workers are worried about it happening too soon. The governor said Massachusetts hospitals are still swamped with more than 3,000 COVID-19 patients, and about 1,000 still in the ICU.

“We still have hospitals all over Massachusetts that are operating ICU capacity and COVID-19 capacity that’s significantly beyond what they would be operating at if they were just running a normal operation,” said Baker.

He said the good news is there’s been about a 20% drop in the number of COVID-19 patients needing hospital beds over the last few weeks, but there’s still a long way to go.

If everything reopens too quickly, the governor says, there’s a major risk of another spike in cases, so he’s hoping everyone can look for the bigger picture on when a new normal will be possible.

“I say all the time that in the end, we should all think about where we want to be as we go down the road here several months from now, not about necessarily where we want to be tomorrow,” said Baker.

He says he won’t release any more details on what a phased reopening will look like for the state until Monday May 18.

Related:

Outdoor dining could be first step for Boston restaurants to reopen


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