National emergency declaration adds to whirlwind day
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Massachusetts Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders, left, with Gov. Charlie Baker
Most large events and gatherings are now banned in Massachusetts, the Boston Marathon will be postponed five months and President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in a whirlwind day of coronavirus pandemic developments.
Hours before the Department of Public Health announced there are 123 total COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts, including two in Worcester County, Gov. Charlie Baker issued an emergency order banning gatherings of 250 or more people — but not regular school days — effective immediately.
The Baker administration's order is the most dramatic step Massachusetts officials have taken to enforce social distancing practices aimed at slowing down the spread of the virus.
Community, civic, leisure and faith-based events — a broad set of categories including fundraisers, religious services, concerts, conventions and weddings — are all covered by the ban on large gatherings. Sporting events can take place, but cannot have crowds in attendance.
"We understand that asking people to change their habits, cancel events and cancel travel is inconvenient, and we understand that it also comes with a financial impact," Baker said at a press conference. "But waiting to act and allowing infections and the subsequent number of people who need medical attention to spike all at once would not only severely hamper our hospitals' ability to care for those who need to be cared for, but would have a far greater economic impact in the future as well."
The order does not apply to airports, train and bus stations, medical facilities, grocery stores and other retail locations, or standard government and office business. Restaurants are also exempt, but they are asked to "encourage social distancing" when possible.
K-12 schools, colleges and universities have not been told to close, either, although the order instructs them not to convene assemblies with 250 people or more.
Some school districts around the area have announced weeks-long or even indefinite shutdowns amid the COVID-19 outbreak, but Baker said Friday that the administration is not recommending a blanket policy.
Instead, he said, local officials should make decisions based on the circumstances in their communities, particularly whether any students or their parents have tested positive for the illness.
"(The) overarching recommendation from a public health point of view is that shutting schools down completely does not appear to be the appropriate thing at this time," Baker said, adding that districts should take a "surgical and fact-based approach" to their decisions.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's latest guidance to districts issued Friday morning offers suggestions on handling specific scenarios. If district leaders decide to close for cleaning, schools should be closed for at most two days, the department said. If a student tests positive or a district experiences sustained community spread of COVID-19, schools should shut down for at least 14 days.
DPH announced Friday afternoon that 15 new cases have been identified in Massachusetts since Thursday, bringing the total to 123. Eighteen of the cases are confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control, while the remaining 105 are presumptive positive.
A significant majority of cases — 94 of the 123 — trace back to a late February employee meeting Biogen held in Boston. Five are travel-related, eight connect to Berkshire Medical Center or contacts from the hospital, and the remaining 16 are under investigation.
Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said testing capacity at the state's public health laboratory will double over the weekend with further automation, from about 200 cases per day to 400.
Two more laboratories, LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics, also received federal approval Thursday to begin conducting COVID-19 tests after weeks of effort, she said. That development will further expand the state's testing capacity, but officials did not offer numbers on how much the new labs could do.
Other institutions such as Massachusetts General Hospital await approval from the Food and Drug Administration to start testing, Sudders said. The state has tests for about 5,000 people available and is seeking more from the federal government.
On Friday, the FDA granted New York the ability to bring additional labs online without first seeking federal approval. Baker said the development was "brand new" and would seek similar authorization in Massachusetts, but he stressed he would not green-light facilities unilaterally.
"I've made pretty clear I don't think the feds are moving quickly enough, but the idea that I would put our entire testing regimen or our health care delivery system at risk by literally violating federal law — I'm not going there," Baker said.
Sudders did not provide a projection on how many undiagnosed cases there may be in Massachusetts, saying only that the state is "engaged in scenario-planning at this time for what may come."
Massachusetts for weeks had not published numbers on how many residents have been tested for the coronavirus, but that will change next week when the DPH includes those figures alongside weekly quarantine figures that are now scheduled for release on Wednesdays.
Sudders refused to say Friday how many people have been tested in the state through this week. Asked repeatedly what the current numbers were, she only replied that the information would become public starting next Wednesday.
"We are actually putting that together right now so that we can start posting next Wednesday all of the data in one place on Wednesdays," Sudders said.
As of Friday, Massachusetts also has coronavirus information available to the public in more than 150 languages on its 211 line. Callers should press 26 for access.
In one of the largest dominoes to fall since the outbreak began, city and state officials announced Friday morning that the Boston Marathon will be postponed until Sept. 14, confirming days of rumors that it would be pushed from the April 20 Patriots' Day holiday to the fall.
While organizers and officials said they were disappointed to delay the annual event for the first time in its 124-year history, they said the health risks made holding the race untenable.
"The big issue here is around managing the contagious elements associated with the disease," Baker said. "If you run a race that has a million people or more along the route over the course of what in many cases could be five or six hours, that sort of fits the definition of an event where personal distancing is simply not going to be possible."
Baker said Friday he would file legislation designating Sept. 14 as a state holiday and has already been in touch with House and Senate leaders on the topic. The new date, he said, will be "just like April 20 would have been this year."
Organizers hope the new three-day weekend can fill the void created by shifting the marathon off its Patriots' Day tradition. Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said the city plans to make Sept. 14 a "cornerstone" and launch a campaign to help local businesses recover from the impacts of the pandemic.
While Walsh said he did not know the cost of postponement, he said outright canceling the race would have cut $211 million in revenue from the regional economy and prevented almost $40 million from reaching area charities.
Officials discussed several options, but decided that running a race without spectators or with only elite participants would have been contrary to the spirit of the event.
Walsh also announced Friday that Boston Public Schools would remain open next week despite closures in other districts. The mayor said he would offer an update on Sunday about "how to deal with schools moving forward," but opened his remarks at the Friday press conference by noting he does not yet have "any answers" on what the district's ultimate plan will be.
In an afternoon press conference at the White House, Trump declared a national state of emergency and pledged to free up access to $50 billion in federal resources to help states and communities fight the outbreak.
Trump said the declaration would give new authority to federal Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to waive federal regulations, thereby improving access to telehealth, expanding hospital care and accelerating testing capacity. The president also said he is ordering federal loan agencies to waive interest on all student loans until further notice.
Baker declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts on Tuesday. Two days later, the House and Senate fast-tracked a $15 million aid package that gives the administration broad authority on how to spend it for coronavirus response.
The governor hinted Friday that the state may need to tap into its $3.5 billion savings account as the outbreak continues.
"A lot of us have worked pretty hard up here over the last few years to dramatically expand the state's rainy day fund," Baker said. "I fully expect that, over the course of the next — pick a number — five or six months, there are many issues we're going to need to figure out how to help people work their way through."
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