9/9/2020 Press Conference on COVID-19 Updates

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On September 9th, Governor Baker gave a press conference to provide a COVID-19 update on Testing and Unemployment Updates.

Here is the summary.

Testing

  • Yesterday, there were 9,439 new individuals tested for COVID-19. This brings the total number of tests conducted to over 2.7 million. 

  • Last week, the Commonwealth averaged about 42,000 tests per day compared to about 33,000 tests the previous week. A part of this increase is from college students and faculty getting tested as they return to campus. 

    • The Department of Public Health will start to report on data from college testing shortly.

  • Please continue to wear face coverings, practice good hand washing/hygiene, disinfect surfaces, social distance, and call your doctor if you do not feel well. Please do not share food, drinks, or utensils with anyone. 

  • Please find the interactive data map at mass.gov/covidmap to see how COVID-19 impacts each community in the Commonwealth. 

Unemployment Updates

  • MA applied and was approved for a program that will allocate funds from FEMA to provide an extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits for claimants. 

    • This approval applies to both traditional unemployment claimants (DUA) and claimants under the pandemic unemployment assistance program (PUA). 

    • Eligible claimants do not need to take action to receive these benefits as they will show up on a retroactive basis in their accounts. 

      • The retroactivity goes back to August 1st. 

  • Last week, the Department of Labor was able to start distributing supplemental benefits to pandemic unemployment assistance claimants. The PUA claimants received their first three weeks worth of retroactive payments last week and those benefits cover the first three weeks of August.

    • Next week, those PUA claimants will receive the following two weeks worth of retroactive benefits as well. 

  • So far, MA has been able to distribute over $200 million in supplemental benefit payments to PUA claimants. This number will increase next week when the additional retroactive payments are made.

    • Around 235,000 PUA claimants are now receiving this expanded benefit.