A top White House pandemic official said Massachusetts has become one of the focal points in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak as Gov. Charlie Baker Sunday urged the feds to “put the foot on the accelerator” in the effort to expand testing.
“We’re a series of small epidemics across the United States. We’re still very much focused on Boston and across Massachusetts where the epidemics continue to spread across Massachusetts as well as in Boston,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Birx named Chicago, Washington and New York City as other hotspots. She also indicated that the government was focusing on expanding testing, something Baker said would be key to jump-starting economies decimated by the coronavirus — along with more federal aid to the states.
Baker said Massachusetts, like every state in the country, is struggling with a “hit to their economy” caused by widespread business closures during the coronavirus crisis.
“(The feds) have certainly talked a lot about the importance of stimulating the economy going forward — for states to be able to support that initiative obviously it’s important for the feds to support our efforts to fund the stuff we do,” Baker said during an appearance also on “Face the Nation,” following Birx.
“If we’re laying off tens of thousands of people at exactly the time when they want to reopen the economy, we’re going to be swimming against the current they’re trying to create,” he said.
Revenue streams have dried up as economies have ground to a halt amid social-distancing and stay-at-home advisories designed to slow the spread of the highly infectious virus.
President Trump is pressuring Baker and governors across the nation to reopen their economies in the face of massive losses — something Baker said can’t be done without expanded testing and community tracing of infected people.
“We’re in a very different place here in Massachusetts than other states are. We’re right in the middle of the surge now,” Baker said.”I certainly believe that the more guidance (from the feds) and especially the ability to put the foot on the accelerator with respect to advancements in testing” the better off the state will be.
The state government has teamed up with Partners in Health to launch a first-of-its-kind contact tracing program where more than 1,000 people will work to map any contacts COVID-19-positive patients have, to help contain and control the spread.
“I absolutely believe that, in Massachusetts anyway, for us to get back on our feet and start thinking about reopening, we have got to have better knowledge and better understanding and support for people who are dealing with this virus and those they’ve come in close contact with,” Baker said.
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April 20, 2020 at 06:42AM
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White House ‘very much focused’ on Massachusetts coronavirus outbreak - Boston Herald
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