As COVID-19 deaths in Massachusetts rose to 25, a visibly frustrated Gov. Charlie Baker lobbed criticism Thursday at the federal government for the challenges states face in acquiring protective equipment and insisted that schools could return to session this spring if the coronavirus outbreak tails off.
In his daily press conference, just before the state announced 579 new cases, Baker also announced several health and human service policy reforms aimed at increasing access to aid for the state’s most vulnerable residents and a request that the federal government declare a major disaster in Massachusetts.
Baker grew animated as he fielded questions about keeping doctors, nurses and other front-line workers safe from the infectious disease. He said governors around the country are “killing ourselves” trying to purchase personal protective equipment only to watch their efforts fall apart when they are outbid by Washington.
“We are doing everything we can through an incredibly messy thicket that is enormously frustrating for all of us to try to get them the gear they deserve and they need,” Baker said when asked for his message to concerned health care employees. “I stand here as someone who has had confirmed orders for millions of pieces of gear evaporate in front of us, and I can’t tell you how frustrating it is.”
On a public conference call the Trump administration hosted with governors last week, Baker told President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that Massachusetts “lost to the feds” trying to acquire supplies for its fight against the outbreak.
Trump replied that while he liked the push by governors to bring in more equipment for their states, they likely lost because “price is always a component.” The federal government has also been distributing equipment to the states, but not at the rate that many governors would like to see.
The governor has continued to raise concerns at every opportunity, he said Thursday, but securing orders “continues to be, in some respects, one of the biggest challenges we face.”
“We now have other orders that are outstanding that are probably quote-unquote confirmed, but we’ve literally gotten to the point where our basic position is: until the god—” Baker said, cutting himself off mid-word, “— until the things show up here in the Commonwealth of Mass., it doesn’t exist.”
Massachusetts has already spent more than $28 million on the personal protective equipment, referred to as PPE, and medical equipment alone, Baker wrote in a Thursday letter to Trump.
In that letter, Baker sought additional federal help for Massachusetts through a formal major disaster declaration. That move, he said at Thursday’s press conference, would provide assistance such as financial aid to cities, towns, state agencies and nonprofits.
Baker wrote that responding to the magnitude of the crisis “is beyond the capabilities of State and local governments” and requested additional disaster unemployment assistance and crisis counseling assistance alongside the declaration.
“Preliminary damage assessments are impossible to perform at this time due to the dynamic nature of this pandemic, but cases continue to increase each day and ongoing life-saving response activities are overwhelming both State and local resources,” Baker told the president.
Unemployment claims are soaring in Massachusetts and throughout the country as some businesses are forced to shutter amid the outbreak.
Massachusetts received 7,449 non-seasonally adjusted claims during the week ending March 14 and 147,995 during the week ending March 21, nearly 20 times as many. The 3.28 million initial claims filed nationwide last week far surpassed any previous records.
Baker said the state’s unemployment system received a “fifteenfold increase” in applications in recent weeks, a level of demand that the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development has been able to handle without the system crashing.
About 10 days ago, he said, the department’s call center had roughly 50 people in it. That amount bumped up to 300 this week and will likely be 400 next week to cope with the surge.
He stressed Thursday that workers filing claims need to list the same employer name on their applications as they did on their W-2 form to ensure proper processing.
A day after he ordered all schools and child care centers to remain closed through May 4, Baker pushed back against shuttering them for the rest of the school year as some governors in other states have done.
While he said the administration will “track the facts on the ground” and avoid opening schools if doing so would present a public health risk, he said the state should — if it is safe to do so — allow students to finish the year.
“We should be committed to the idea that if it’s safe, we want kids to be able to finish the year,” Baker said. “I don’t want to toss away the second half of a student’s possibility to learn what they need to learn to succeed in the next grade. How does that help anybody? I’ve wondered all along on this one. If we literally just broom the rest of the school year, that would mean every student in Massachusetts, for all intents and purposes, would either have to stay back, not graduate, or, if they moved head to the next grade, they would move ahead or they would graduate from high school having missed literally almost half a year of educational experience.”
Baker said the internet and other digital tools can help foster a learning environment at home, but that “there are a lot of kids for whom school is going to be the place where they have the biggest and the best and the most significant opportunity to get the kind of education they need.”
“I don’t want to start with the assumption that we’re just going to blow that off for the rest of the year,” he said. “Let’s see if we can figure out a way to create enough meaningful content and opportunity for kids to actually get something out of the second half of the school year, and maybe, depending upon what happens, we’ll have the ability to have them spend the next five weeks doing some good stuff either using the public TV options that are available or school-based options made available to them at home or stuff available in packages done online, and then let’s see what happens when we get there.”
In other steps announced Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said the state waived nurse-to-patient staffing ratios at hospitals and will allow pharmacists licensed in other states to practice in a Massachusetts-licensed pharmacy or health care facility.
Officials also set up a hotline on Wednesday to connect individuals with disabilities with home health care aides when their personal care attendants are unable to work during the public health emergency.
The state will convert the Newton Pavilion, a former Boston Medical Center hospital building it owns, into a specialized care center for homeless individuals and families during the coronavirus outbreak. That site will feature up to 250 beds and can provide both health care and post-discharge care for individuals in and around the city without permanent residences.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Massachusetts more than doubled overnight to 219 as the number of total cases increased to 2,417 and deaths jumped to 25, according to Department of Public Health data released Thursday afternoon.
Baker said Thursday that 21 laboratories are now online to test for the virus, nearly double the capacity the state had just two days ago. Some will not begin reporting data to the state until later in the week.