Gov. Charlie Baker, during a press briefing on Tuesday at Baystate Health in Springfield, said healthcare officials in the state believe a more contagious variant of the coronavirus is in Massachusetts, though it’s not officially been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control.
“I think most of us are working on the assumption that it’s here. I mean there’d be no reason not to, given the contagious nature of this new variant,” Baker said.
In terms of the vaccine rollout, Baker said the state continues to concentrate on vaccinating who he called “COVID-facing” healthcare workers. Next week, the rollout begins for first responders and the federal government is coordinating the vaccines for long-term care facilities like Windemere through CVS and Walgreens.
As for when we might see a more full-scale rollout of the vaccine for the general population, Baker said that depends on the availability of the vaccine.
“If you were to talk to most of the states, our view would be, the sooner the better. Give us six weeks worth of what the distribution is going to look like — how many on what days — and we’ll have the infrastructure in place to make sure we can deliver as quickly as possibly we can.”
Baker said the more contagious COVID-19 variant is considered “treatable” by the vaccine. “I’m back to my little speech about how important it is for people to wear masks, maintain distance, and recognize and appreciate that when you’re not with the people you live with, you really ought to be vigilant and careful and cautious with your physical engagement with other people,” Baker said, noting the 25 percent capacity limits. “Try to avoid those informal gatherings, where people historically got together and piled into a family room or a living room to watch a football game or a hockey game or a basketball game.”
Baker said it’s too early to tell if the holidays will cause an uptick in cases like the one that happened after Thanksgiving.
“Thanksgiving turned out to be a pretty significant hit to our healthcare system and to our commonwealth with respect to the rise in cases and hospitalizations that came with that,” he said. “It’s still a little early to draw any conclusions about the post Christmas and New Year’s impact, but we certainly believe based on everything we’ve heard from our conversations with our colleagues in the hospital world that there has been a tick up in hospitalizations after the beginning of that particular week and we’re obviously going to pay a lot of attention to that data.”
Baker said there is promising news on the vaccine front with two more pharmaceutical companies having their vaccines approved in the United Kingdom.
As for which vaccine individuals should choose if they’re given a choice, Baker said just take one. “I got the flu shot, I have absolutely no idea who manufactures the flu shot,” he said, noting that it follows federal guidelines. “From my point of view, 94 or 95 percent effectiveness, I think people should be perfectly happy with either one.”
