4/30/2020 Press Conference on COVID-19 Updates

/

On April 30th, Governor Baker gave a press conference to provide a COVID-19 update on Testing, Contact Tracing, Hospitalization, PPE, the Reopening Advisory Board, Federal Disaster Assistance, and Mental Health Month.

Here is the summary.

Testing

  • MA processed 11,118 tests and there were 1,963 confirmed positive tests of COVID-19.

    • This shows that 17.7% of the tests conducted were positive.

Contact Tracing

  • To date, the contact tracing team has made contact with about 5,000 people who are either COVID-19 positive or suspected to be close contacts with people who were. 

  • If you receive a call from a contact tracer, please take the call and provide the relevant information to the caller. 

    • When you receive a call from a contact tracer, it will either come up as an 833 or 857 number. If you have caller ID it will show up as “MA COVID TEAM”. 

Hospitalization

  • As of yesterday, there were 3,856 patients hospitalized in MA for COVID-19.

    • There continues to be a fairly consistent number of hospitalization of COVID-19 patients. The hospitalization admittance has been consistent for about 15 days in a row. This shows that MA is still in the surge of COVID-19 and is waiting for a gradual decline in hospitalizations. 

PPE

  • As of yesterday, MA has delivered over 7 million pieces of personal protective equipment. 

Reopening Advisory Board

  • The Board is setting up feedback and listening sessions across the state to get as many voices included in their work. 

  • As of Wednesday, the Board has talked to retailers, people in the biotech industry, people in the healthcare industry, people in the technology industry, and the brick and mortar retailers. 

Federal Disaster Assistance

  • Today, MA submitted a request for FEMA for the agency to provide 100% reimbursement for eligible costs under the federal disaster declaration that the state had filed and received approval for several weeks ago. 

Mental Health Month

  • May is Mental Health Month. If you or someone you care about is feeling overwhelmed with emotions like sadness and/or anxiety, there are resources out there. Please call ‘CALL2TALK’. 

  • In March, MA launched the Massachusetts Network of Care, a searchable directory, by keywords and zip codes, of services and organizations to preserve and protect one’s mental health. 

    • Please visit massachusetts.networkofcare.org. You can also access this website through the mass.gov site. 

  • Please remember that it is okay to turn off the news and/or social media to engage in healthy mental activities. While it is important to stay informed, it is also important to take care of your mental health.