Charlie Baker

With less than a month until his vaccination mandate for state employees takes effect, Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday he was not worried about creating staffing shortages at the State Police or other agencies where employees may decide not to follow the governor's directive.

In a Tweet on Friday afternoon, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told Saint Vincent Hospital and the Massachusetts Nurses Association union to end the strike ongoing at the Worcester healthcare facility since March 8.

All staff in Massachusetts rest homes, assisted living residences and hospice programs and home care workers who provide in-home direct care would need to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the next two months under an expanded mandate the Baker administration announced Wednesday.

With the exception of certain municipalities taking the matter into their own hands, the lack of government direction on masks has left individual business owners and management to decide for themselves whether or not to require face coverings.

About 42,000 state employees will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have secured a medical or religious exemption by Oct. 17, or face the risk of consequences including losing their jobs, under an executive order Gov. Charlie Baker signed Thursday.

Despite the entirety of Massachusetts now experiencing "high" or "substantial" transmission of COVID-19, Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday he had no plans to revisit his administration's latest guidance for wearing masks indoors or in schools.

After face mask mandates were largely lifted this spring as the coronavirus pandemic seemed to be subsiding, they are returning to Central Massachusetts as both the City of Worcester and Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Tuesday announced they would once again require masks.

Massachusetts long-term care workers will be required to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 10, under a new mandate the Baker administration rolled out Wednesday.

The Baker administration is "likely" to continue programs that help hard-hit communities access COVID-19 testing and vaccines for the foreseeable future, Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday.

The transmission rate of COVID-19 is now considered to be "high" or "substantial" in more than half of the state's 14 counties with residents of and visitors to Barnstable and Nantucket counties considered to be the most at risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.