5/13/2020 Press Conference on COVID-19 Updates

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On May 13th, Governor Baker gave a press conference to provide a COVID-19 update on Testing, Hospitalizations, The Star Community Health Center, The Command Center, The Mobile-Testing Program, The Department of Public Health, and The Contact Tracing Program.

Here is the summary.

Testing

  • Yesterday, MA conducted over 6,700 tests which brings the total number of tests to over 401,000.

    • Of the tests conducted yesterday, 870 tests (or 13%) were confirmed positive. 

Hospitalizations

  • There are currently over 3,000 residents hospitalized due to COVID-19.

    • Overall, MA has seen about a 20% decrease in the number of people who have been hospitalized.

Star Community Health Center (CHC)

  • Governor Baker held today’s press conference at the Star Community Health Center in Fall River to speak about their work and contribution to fight COVID-19. 

  • As the Command Center has been working to increase testing capacity, labs are testing between 8,000 and 15,000 tests per day. Centers like Star CHC have improved MA’s ability to test at CHCs by monitoring infection rates by region and providing care, support services, and advice as to what is going on in hotspots. 

  • Last week, MA announced a partnership with Quest Diagnostics and 18 CHCs, including Star, to focus on increasing testing capacity in areas that were hit hardest (high-density communities and communities of color). 

    • These include neighborhoods in Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Chelsea, Brockton, Lawrence, Lowell, Revere, and Holyoke. 

  • Star CHC’s effort to make recovery/isolation spaces available to people who test positive on the South Coast has been a great asset to MA’s fight against COVID-19. 

    • Today, MA has 9 regional isolation and recovery sites in Everett, Lexington, Taunton, Worcester, Northampton, Pittsfield, Chelsea/Revere (a shared site), Boston Hope, and Newton Pavilion. 

    • People who stay at the recovery/isolation spaces are provided with a hotel room and three meals a day. These sites have served about 800 COVID-19 positive individuals. 

Command Center

  • Please view the document of all testing sites in MA here.

Mobile-Testing Program

  • The mobile-testing program has completed almost 40,000 tests at 360 facilities around MA. The program has also completed over 20,000 tests at facilities overseen by The Executive Office of Health and Human Services. 

The Department of Public Health

  • Yesterday, the Department of Public Health issued guidance to update MA’s work around appropriate use of laboratory testing for COVID-19 and expanded testing recommendations for commercial and clinical labs. These are their recommendations:

    • All symptomatic individuals in MA, even those with mild symptoms, should be tested. As a reminder, the symptoms for COVID-19 include fever, chills, signs of lower respiratory illness, fatigue, sore throat, headache, body ache, or new loss of taste or smell.

    • All individuals identified as close contacts of COVID-19 cases should also be tested. 

Contact Tracing Program

  • Star CHC is one of 36 CHCs that are participating in the contact tracing program.

  • If you test positive for COVID-19 you will be contacted by the Community Tracing Collaborative or by your local board of health. 

    • On this call, they will make sure you have what you need to isolate yourself while you recover. They will also ask you who you have been in close contact with for the past couple of days before you started to show symptoms or a couple of days before your positive test if you do not have symptoms. 

    • The phone call will come from an 833 or 857 number and shows as ‘MA COVID TEAM’ on caller ID. Please take the call as this is your chance to help stop the spread of the virus. 

  • To date, the Community Tracing Collaborative has connected with nearly 18,000 confirmed cases and reached out to more than 14,000 of their close contacts since they started making calls about a month ago. 

  • The Community Tracing Collaborative has around 1,600 people making calls. 

  • The median number of close contacts for each confirmed case is around 2 or 3 people. This is a good sign and shows that most people are taking social distancing seriously.

Homeless and Housing

  • For homeless and housing insecure individuals, MA has expanded eligibility for regional recovery/isolation sites to include low-income individuals who are diagnosed with COVID-19. 

    • These referrals can come from community health centers, healthcare providers, and the contact tracing program.