Gov. Baker implores residents not to gather for New Year’s Eve, citing post-holiday COVID surges

BOSTON — The end of 2020 is now a day away. The governor put out another plea before New Year’s Eve to be smart when you decide how to celebrate.

After what happened at Thanksgiving, the state knows they will see an uptick. The past few weeks have been trying to minimize the uptick. Governor Charlie Baker admits the message is a broken record, but he’s begging people to stick to the plan.

“Don’t celebrate the birthday, don’t celebrate the anniversary, don’t celebrate Christmas, don’t celebrate Hannukkah, don’t celebrate New Year’s, don’t celebrate Halloween, don’t celebrate, don’t celebrate,” the governor said.

The governor put out a plea to avoid gatherings as people get ready to celebrate the New Year. But the New Year could also be a turning point in the pandemic.

“To me, the biggest good riddance will be the beat down that this thing has put on so many people in so many ways,” Gov. Baker said.

Baker punched his hand to demonstrate how physically and emotionally devastating the virus has been on the state, its residents and their way of life.

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“Year after year of face-to-face human contact with their customer-base just absolutely [punches hand] by this thing,” he said.

The governor also pointed out the positives; people are exploring their state more, finding ways to productively work remotely, which has led to more family time.

“For many people that found time has been incredibly valuable, and I’m sure a lot of people don’t want to lose that when we get back to something that looks like after the after-normal is,” the governor said.

Baker said that the post-pandemic world now relies on a successful vaccine distribution plan, which he believes is on track with 300,000 doses already allocated to the state. The governor added that there have been discussions of how they will step up distribution when the general public begins getting the vaccine.

“We certainly think, once you get out of some of the targeted audiences and get into a more diffuse distribution, we are going to be back here talking about how that would work,” Gov. Baker said.

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