BOSTON (WHDH) - Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday called the Bay State “a national hot spot for COVID-19 infections” before detailing a plan to boost coronavirus testing capabilities at several community health centers.
“I think everybody would like to see us find a way to get back into something that looks like what people used to do day in and day out but for Massachusetts, which is now a national hot sport for COVID-19 infections, we really do need to stay the course and keep up our efforts to stay home, socially distance, wear masks, and respect and understand the issues associated with this virus.”
So why has Massachusetts morphed into a national hot spot? Baker cited three contributing factors, including high testing rates.
“If you’re one of the states that test the most, you’re likely to be one of the states that finds the most positive cases,” Baker said.
Baker also explained how density has played a role in pushing Massachusetts into the top three states in the country in terms of positive cases.
“If you look at most of the states that have the highest number of positive cases or the highest number of hospitalizations, they tend to be the states that are dense, relatively speaking, compared to others,” Baker said.
Lastly, Baker cited the global economy as a contributing factor.
“If you think about most of the places that have had the most significant outbreaks, they’re places that have tons of back and forth,” Baker said.
Massachusetts went five straight days seeing a decline in new coronavirus cases, indicating that community isolation measures appeared to be working to flatten the curve. However, this trend ended Wednesday with 221 new coronavirus-related deaths recorded, along with 1,745 new cases.
Baker stressed the number of positive tests is entirely dependent on who is getting tested and that it doesn’t represent the entire Commonwealth.
Baker said last week that the state needs to significantly boost testing before even considering a reopening of the economy. He reiterated that Wednesday.
In an effort to better understand the positive case trend, Baker unveiled a plan to “dramatically” increase testing at 12 community health centers in Boston, Brockton, Lowell, Quincy, Fall River, New Bedford, Provincetown, and Worcester.
“This is not like the flu. If you get it, you know and everybody else knows it,” Baker stressed.
Quest Diagnostics has sent over 2,255 testing kits to community health centers in Boston and Brockton in recent days. Thousands of additional kits will be sent to the other sites this week.
The health centers in Boston include the East Boston Community Health Center, Codman Square, Whittier, and DotHouse.
Increased testing will also be focused on hot spots like Chelsea, Brockton and Lowell.
Baker said 6,000 tests were administered on Tuesday, bringing the total number of tests since the outbreak to 175,372. There are 42,944 confirmed cases with 2,182 deaths as of Wednesday.
Baker added that 30 community health centers have agreed to participate in the state’s contact tracing program designed to try to track down individuals who may have come in contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19.
Cellphone calls from the contract tracing program will show up on phones as “MA COVID Team” and won’t be blocked by caller ID. Baker urged anyone who gets a call to answer it.
“This activity is not an attempt to invade anyone’s privacy, and we’re certainly not sharing anyone’s private information with anyone beyond the public health officials,” said John Welch of the MAS COVID Response.
Baker continued that the state has seen a “modest” increase in coronavirus hospitalizations, a piece of data that his administration watches “most closely.”
As of Wednesday, there were 3,872 infected patients hospitalized statewide. Out of 18,000 hospital beds at facilities across the state, 56 percent are unoccupied, according to Baker.
“If we move too quickly, we risk moving the progress that we’ve made so far. Our healthcare workers are pushing back against the virus and they need us to push back too,” Baker said. “We owe it to them, our parents, our friends, and our neighbors to keep up the fight and to win. We’ll get through this and we will come out stronger on the other side but everyone needs to do their part and understand that we need the facts on the ground to drive our decision making.”
On Tuesday, Baker announced that all public and private schools in Massachusetts will be closed for the rest of the school year.
Baker said his administration is still working to determine whether to extend the current stay-at-home advisory, which runs through May 4.
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