BOSTON (WHDH) - Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday that he filed a $1 billion supplemental budget bill to help pay for mounting COVID-19 expenses after saying Massachusetts is “not yet out of the woods” with respect to fighting and overcoming the coronavirus pandemic.
The bill authorizes spending to cover the costs of purchasing additional personal protective gear, rate adjustments for essential human services providers, temporary field hospitals and shelters, and the state’s vital contact tracing program, Baker said during a news conference that followed a tour of MatTek, a life sciences company based in Ashland.
“It is expected that this spending will result in no net cost to the Commonwealth, after anticipated federal reimbursement and other federal funding sources,” Baker’s office said in a press release.
Baker’s bill will also cover National Guard pay, emergency child care for essential workers, increased costs of local housing authorities, and of the family and individual shelter system.
Baker also noted that coronavirus-related hospitalizations have been on the decline, but cautioned that in order for a phased reopening of the economy to begin next week, the state still needs to see a steady day-to-day drop in a number of key data trends, including positive COVID-19 tests and fatalities.
“While these recent numbers have been encouraging, hospitalizations, positive tests, and other measures, we are not yet out of the woods and we should all remember that,” Baker said.
While there were only 669 new positive cases reported on Monday, Baker said his administration concluded that the low number was due to people likely forgoing tests on Mother’s Day.
One day after unveiling a four-phase plan on reopening non-essential businesses across the Commonwealth, Baker announced that industry-specific guidelines on what businesses can open in Phase 1 will not be issued until Monday, May 18.
Phase 1 will include industries that are “naturally set up” and have “limited face-to-face interactions,” according to the state’s plan.
Baker’s non-essential business closure order and stay-at-home advisory are slated to expire on May 18; though at this point, it’s not clear if the order or advisory will be lifted.
Since the start of the outbreak, there have been 5,108 coronavirus deaths and more than 78,000 confirmed cases in Massachusetts.
MatTek is now producing personal protective equipment as part of the state’s Manufacturing Emergency Response Team. The company typically specializes in vitro human tissue models and glass-bottom dishes.
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