NORTHAMPTON — The co-chairs of the state Legislature’s COVID-19 response committee expressed concern with the Baker administration’s public health guidelines in a letter to the governor Tuesday and urged changes, including a new statewide mask mandate.
State Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, and state Rep. Bill Driscoll, D-Milton — co-chairs of the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management — also called for expanded in-school testing, a system of quarantine and isolation shelters throughout the state, and greater efforts to reduce vaccine hesitancy.
“We have found ourselves in the mid-holiday season with increasingly high COVID transmission rates, along with at or near capacity hospitals throughout the state,” the letter reads. “We are still learning about the Delta variant and navigating its surge, and now the emerging Omicron variant could have monumental impacts given its potential increased transmissibility.”
Before the co-chairs sent their letter Tuesday, the state Department of Public Health issued an advisory asking all people, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask in indoor public spaces. Gov. Charlie Baker also activated 500 members of the National Guard to assist hospitals with non-clinical tasks including transportation and security, a decision that Comerford and Driscoll support.
On Wednesday, Baker defended his resistance to mandating mask-wearing or reimposing other mitigation measures, saying people who have been both vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 face an “extremely low” risk from the fast-spreading omicron variant, according to State House News Service.
Asked why the Legislature does not implement a mask mandate on its own, Comerford’s office shared a statement attributed to her and state Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, one of the committee’s vice chairs.
“It is the Governor’s responsibility, through his executive powers, to put temporary measures in place to protect public health in an emergency, which in this case means mitigating the current impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in real-time as the situation continues to evolve,” the statement reads. “That’s why the Senate is advocating for the Governor to do more immediately.”
Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, said this week that she supports a new statewide mask mandate, along with requiring proof of vaccination for entering most indoor “social venues.”
On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 38,421 new cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts in the previous seven days, 202 deaths and a 78.1% vaccination rate. In Hampshire County, there were 723 cases identified between Dec. 14 and 20 and a 65.7% vaccination rate.
The entire state is experiencing a “high” level of community transmission, the highest level on the CDC’s scale.
“There is potential for the situation to further deteriorate in the coming weeks, despite having a highly vaccinated population,” the letter to Baker reads. “It is therefore our view that the administration needs to urgently and more clearly define the details of a surge-related plan with specific goals regarding tests, vaccinations, boosters, and hospital capacity thresholds.”
State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, said the next six to eight weeks are “looking pretty difficult, honestly.” The weather is getting colder at the same time that the new omicron variant is circulating and she said the state is winding down its contact tracing program.
Sabadosa said the governor is able to “act urgently” on a mask mandate, whereas the Legislature is designed to be slow and deliberative.
“Vaccines, masks and testing are the components we need to be focusing on. People should be wearing the best masks possible, and they should be doing it to protect their neighbors and the hospital capacity,” Sabadosa said. “We don’t have to shut things down if we take the proper precautions.”
Sabadosa encouraged everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated and said those who are getting their first shots now should be “celebrated” for their decision rather than criticized for the delay. She received her vaccine booster shot from the Northampton Health Department, inside City Council chambers, earlier this week.
Positive at-home test results should be reported to the patient’s doctor, she said, and anyone with whom the patient may have come into contact.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, both Democrats of Massachusetts, have publicly called for a new statewide mask mandate. In her own letter to Baker on Tuesday, Pressley wrote that the state “has reached the grim milestone of more than one million cases and nearly 20,000 deaths,” and easy access to vaccines and accurate testing remain critical.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.