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Gov. Charlie Baker
July 2, 2020
Gyms, museums may open Monday as Mass. enters Phase Three of reopening
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Massachusetts fitness centers have been closed since March.
Phase Three of the Massachusetts reopening plan will officially begin Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker announced during a press conference midday Thursday, making way for gyms and museums to open their doors to patrons once again, so long as they strictly adhere to social distancing and sanitization guidelines.
Baker announced a significant change to guidance on gatherings, which will now allow for indoor gatherings of up to 25 people and outdoor enclosed gatherings of up to 100 people. The guidance does not apply to unenclosed outdoor places, like backyard barbecues. Professional sports will also be allowed to resume without spectators.
Baker said there has been a 94% decrease in the positive COVID-19 test rate since the middle of April, as well as other positive public health indicators as the state’s cases continue to decline.
“As a whole, we’ve been encouraged by the significant progress we’ve made in these metrics,” Baker said.
Still, Baker urged the public to remain as vigilant as ever, asking residents to continue wearing face masks, socially distancing and washing their hands.
“We know that COVID-19 won’t be taking any time off this summer, and we need to maintain vigilance if we wish to continue to move forward,” Baker said.
Like Phase Two, Phase Three will be implemented in two phases, Baker said, noting the third phase opens facilities drawing large numbers of people to indoor settings.
“Medical evidence continues to say that COVID has a much higher risk of spreading indoors in enclosed spaces than it does in outdoor spaces,” Baker said. “This phase will last significantly longer than the other phases so that we can closely monitor the impact to our public health data that comes with this move to Phase Three.”
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