Gov. Baker extends stay-at-home advisory through May 18

BOSTON — Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced on Tuesday that the state’s stay-at-home advisory will be extended through Monday, May 18. That advisory was originally set to expire on Monday, May 4 before the governor made his announcement at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

In addition to the stay-at-home-advisory extension, the governor also announced that the state would be extending its closures of non-essential businesses through May 18 as well.

Also pushed back to May 18 is the state’s ban on gatherings of 10 or more people.

A 17-person group of local leaders is set to meet over a Zoom call to figure out how to reopen the state. Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera was one of the people picked to be in that group because of his experience with the Merrimack Valley Gas Explosion crisis.

Gov. Baker also announced the creation of an advisory board that will look at the steps needed for reopening Massachusetts. That board will be lead by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and will consist of 17 members.

The board, which includes Mayor Walsh’s chief of staff, business, health care and transportation leaders, will come up with a re-opening recommendation for the governor.

“This is a process that needs to be smart, needs to be putting safety first and needs to be phased,” said Polito.

The reopening committee met for the first time on Tuesday afternoon to begin discussing options. While no plan has been announced yet, Baker announced that the Commonwealth’s reopening will be done in phases. Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera was one of the people picked to be in that group because of his experience with the Merrimack Valley Gas Explosion crisis.

“The big institutions are going to be okay and it is the small institutions and the small families, working poor, people on SNAP,” said Rivera. "Those are who are going to be mostly impacted.”

The deadline for the advisory board’s recommendation on how to reopen Massachusetts will also be May 18.

Governor Baker began his daily briefing on Tuesday by extending all of his restrictions that went into effect on March 23 to May 18th.

“Everybody has said you need to see downward trends,” said Baker. "The Mass General COVID-19 simulator shows the number of deaths staying under 5,000 if the state stays closed through August. Models are models are models. They certainly shouldn’t be deemed as sort of gospel on this stuff because people are constantly changing their models.”

Business leaders could play key role in state's reopening Plans to reopen the economy in Massachusetts are now partially in the hands of local leaders, officials and business executives.

The governor’s administration says all of their decisions are being driven by health metrics. Polito says “we can and will do everything in our power to get this right.”

RESOURCES:

- Massachusetts Coronavirus Information

- Boston Coronavirus Information

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