COVID-19 – Massachusetts Update 5-16-2020
- As of Friday night, DPH reported a total of 83,421 cases of COVID-19. The state has now confirmed a total of 5,592 deaths from the virus.
- A short-term borrowing bill to tide the state through COVID-19-related revenue gaps was signed into law by Governor Baker.
- Two key strategies to maintaining progress in the fight against COVID-19 as the state begins a gradual process of reviving public activity will be use of masks and, wherever possible, employees working remotely, Governor Baker said Friday.
- About half of the employees in state government’s executive branch have been working remotely since late March, and the Baker administration this week extended that policy “for the foreseeable future.”
- Governor Baker refrained from offering any details about the phased reopening plan a state panel is set to unveil Monday or the future of his stay-at-home advisory, saying that he would have “a lot more to say” after the weekend.
- The governor also revealed Friday that the first phase of his four-phase reopening plan will not begin Monday.
- He said the order that is keeping “non-essential” businesses closed will be extended by 24 hours to Tuesday, May 19, so it is still in place when he rolls out the details.
- The timing of the Monday announcement has not yet been made public.
- Officials launched an online portal Friday listing 250 sites across Massachusetts where residents can get tested for COVID-19.
- The state will also partner with Wal-Mart to open testing locations in store parking lots in Salem, Brockton, Quincy and Plymouth.
- Cities and towns in Massachusetts will soon get a significant boost from $502 million in federal relief funding.
- Plymouth County will also receive $90 million, while the city of Boston will receive $121 million in additional funding.
- The House and Senate are both scheduled to have informal sessions on Monday.
- The House is planning on taking up the information technology bond bill on Wednesday in a formal session.
- Voters on Tuesday will decide the fate of a pair of Senate seats that have been vacant for months.
- The races are to fill seats based in Westfield and Plymouth.
- In Westfield, the candidates are Democratic state Rep. John Velis and Republican John Cain, both of Westfield.
- In Plymouth, the candidates are Democratic Falmouth Selectwoman Susan Moran, and Bourne Republican Jay McMahon.
- Democrats will retain a supermajority in the Senate regardless of the races’ outcomes, Republicans currently hold four seats out of 40 and Democrats have 34.
- House Speaker Robert DeLeo will address the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce virtually this Thursday afternoon.
- Massachusetts stands to receive $12 billion in aid for state government, plus another $1.5 billion for its school districts and higher education campuses, in a massive $3 trillion relief package expected to pass the U.S. House Friday.
- But the bill is on track to meet a dead end, at least in its current form, although it could eventually become a launching point for House-Senate talks and its fate could be determined by unfolding COVID-19 impacts and election year politics.
- The hydro power project that would provide New England with its largest source of renewable energy and Massachusetts with about a fifth of its electricity demand is at the center of a simmering political and legal fight taking shape in Maine.
- New England Clean Energy Connect, a 145-mile transmission project of Central Maine Power Company, is expected to link the electrical grids in Quebec and New England to provide cleaner and more reliable hydropower directly to a converter station in Lewiston, Maine, and into the regional power grid.
- This week, CMP’s parent company filed a lawsuit against the state of Maine claiming a ballot question that project opponents got on the November ballot to overturn a key permit approval is unconstitutional.
- That suit came days after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a separate case that contested signatures turned in by project opponents were valid.
- The Maine Department of Environmental Protection earlier this week issued the final state permit needed for construction of the project to move ahead and executives at CMP parent company Avangrid have told investors that they are on track to begin work this summer.
- The coalition of northeast and mid-Atlantic states pursuing a regional cap-and-trade pact to reduce carbon emissions has pushed back its timeline to the fall to finalize the details of a program states will be asked to join.
