Governor Baker says other states can reopen, not Mass.

BOSTON — While President Trump says some states may be easing guidelines as early as Friday, Massachusetts will not be one of them.

Governor Baker is one of many leaders who have been calling for more coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment before entertaining reopening the economy.

In the last 24 hours there have been 2,263 new cases reported in Massachusetts bringing the total number of Covid 19 cases in the state to 32,181. The number of deaths have now risen to 1,245. Governor Baker says right now he’s thinking about getting these numbers down before reopening the economy,

“We need to have a very significant contact tracing program in place to ensure we can identify people who test positive and we can do all we can to identify people who they have had close contact with them and create isolation strategies and supports for those folks,” said Baker.

Governor Baker was on Thursdays call with the rest of the governors and the White House.

“We made it clear to the governors today, these new guidelines for opening up America again can be implemented on a statewide basis or a county by county basis,” said Vice President Mike Pence during a press conference Thursday evening.

Governor Baker says he will be looking at what other states are doing, especially within the coalition of states In the northeast.

"We continue to to look at the data,” said Baker. “We continue to talk to the public health folks. I obviously know it’s on people minds. Its on our minds too. We are looking into giving people guidance that they have enough time to plan."

In NY, Governor Cuomo pushed back his state’s shutdown order until May 15th. When asked if he would follow suit, Governor Baker said it will all depend on the data.

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RESOURCES:

- Massachusetts Coronavirus Information

- Boston Coronavirus Information

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