4/15/2020 Press Conference on COVID-19 Updates

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On April 15th, Governor Baker gave a press conference to provide COVID-19 updates on Testing, PPE, Hospital Capacity, Supporting Nursing Home Community, Nursing Facility Capacity, Command Center, BUOY, and Reporting.

Here is the summary.

Testing

  • As of yesterday, MA has conducted a total of 126,551 tests =.

    • Includes new 4,500 tests conducted yesterday, which was conducted at 28 sites across the state. 

PPE

  • The Command Center has worked to distribute over 3.7 million pieces of PPE to hospitals, nursing homes, community health centers, public safety personnel, local boards of health, and state agencies. 

    • This includes over 2 million gloves, 820,000 masks, over 370,000 masks from the aircraft delivery, and over 170,000 gowns. 

  • Last night, another portion of the aircraft mask shipment arrived in MA. FEMA also notified the state this morning that MA will be receiving 1 million pieces of PPE, which includes 650,000 masks and 260,000 suits. 

  • Please go to mass.gov/covid19 for a daily summary of PPE distribution.

Hospital Capacity

  • At the end of the day on Monday, April 13th, there were 17,500 beds statewide in MA that were suitable for COVID-19 treatment.

    • This includes just under 6,000 acute care beds, just over 2,500 ICU beds, and approximately another 750 beds that are available in the field hospitals. 

Supporting the Nursing Home Community

  • As of yesterday, April 14th, more than 4,500 tests have been collected at 264 senior living facilities. As of yesterday, another 77 facilities have requested more than 8,000 test kits. 

  • Since the beginning of March, the state has provided nursing facilities with 1.3 million masks, almost 200,000 gowns, and over 2 million gloves. 

  • MA is working to mobilize a rapid response clinical team capability to provide short term support to facilities with a high volume of cases or with critical staffing needs. 

    • These teams are made up of EMS technicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. 

  • To meet staffing needs at these facilities, the state has set up the long term care portal to match individuals that have registered through the portal with the staffing requests submitted by facilities. 

    • MA has announced a $1,000 signing bonus to all individuals that register through the portal to work for a certain amount of time. 

  • To provide crisis management support, MA has also contracted with a firm that specializes in nursing home crisis management. This will provide facilities with on-site operational support to assist with staffing, vendors, implementing infection control measures, and other crucial elements. 

    • The firm will also support efforts to stand up dedicated COVID-19 units in nursing facilities. 

Nursing Facility Capacity

  • MA has pursued three parallel options for expanding COVID-19 dedicated nursing facility capacity. 

    • 1.) Converting existing occupied facilities to fully dedicated COVID-19 facilities.

      • Among the first is the Belmont facility in Worcester. There will be 5 additional facilities opening in the next 7-10 days in Brewster, Falmouth, New Bedford, East Long Meadow, and Great Barrington

    •  2.) Converting empty facilities to new COVID-19 nursing facilities, such as the Pioneer Valley Recovery Center in East Long Meadow.

    • 3.) Creating dedicated COVID-19 wings within a broader nursing facility.

  • MA has also committed $130 million in stabilization and support funding in addition to the three-pronged strategies. 

Command Center

  • In early April, the command center announced an across the board 10% MassHealth rate increase, which is equivalent to about $50 million, for all nursing facilities effective April 1st.

  • For facilities that create dedicated COVID-19 units and follow safety protocols will be eligible for an additional 15% rate increase or a net increase of 25%, which is worth approximately $50 million. 

    •  With these rate increases, there is an expectation that there will be an increase in salaries for the front line nursing home staff.

  • There will also be a 10% rate increase for rest homes. This is a different funding formula than nursing facilities. 

  • As of earlier this week, the nursing home family resource hotline has had more than 1,100 individuals call. This resource line is to connect family members who are anxious for their loved ones to learn more about what is happening in the nursing homes. 

    • The number is 617-660-5399 and is open 7 days a week.

Buoy

  • Since the announcement of Buoy, as a COVID-19 resource tool for MA residents, more than 70,000 people have now used it. 

    • Buoy is free for MA residents, will support those who are worried about their symptoms, and will connect them to the appropriate healthcare resource. 

    • Not to be used in place of emergency medical care.

Reporting

  • For the first time starting today, Command Center will release COVID-19 cases by cities and towns. 

    • This new reporting will be updated each Wednesday. 

    • As a standard public health practice and to protect privacy, they will not be releasing the number of positive cases if there are fewer than 5 in a municipality of 50,000 or less.

  • Additional reporting: 

    • Cumulative data on positive cases and deaths in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities and the number of facilities with positive COVID-19 cases.

    • A daily number of COVID-19 in-patient cases by hospitals and the number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU by hospitals. 

    • A daily report of COVID-19 tests, the number of tests that were positive, number of deaths, and those deaths by age group, gender, and county of residence.