5/28/2020 Press Conference on COVID-19 Updates

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On May 28th, Governor Baker gave a press conference to provide a COVID-19 update on Fraudulent Unemployment Claims, Testing, Hospitalizations, and the Umass Lowell Innovation Hub.

Here is the summary.

Fraudulent Unemployment Claims

  • MA has run 150,000 claims through a third party ID verification test. 

    • Out of these claims, 145,000 passed. The remaining 5,000 are being checked further. 

Testing and Hospitalizations

  • The positive test rate is continuing to decline and is at about 8.5% for the past couple of weeks.

  • Hospitalizations are also continuing to trend downwards. 

Umass Lowell Innovation Hub

  • In MA, there are 27 companies that are making PPE with the help of the MERT program. 

    • PPE made by these companies are being tested at the Umass Innovation Hub. 

  • The MA Medical Device Development Center helps out smaller medical device companies through technology, resources, and more.

    • They are also working on a simple blood test to detect COVID-19.