Some health care professionals demanding Gov. Baker tighten COVID-19 restrictions

BOSTON — While Massachusetts residents have been practicing social distancing for a while now, cases of COVID-19 are expected to surge within the next week - and some are saying Governor Baker isn’t doing enough to curb the spread.

Ever since Baker announced the statewide stay-at-home advisory, most people seem to be abiding by the guidelines, but some health care professionals are calling on the governor to ban gatherings of any size and restrict contact to household members only.

The COVID-19 Action Coalition also wants all public spaces closed and more non-essential businesses closed.

Despite other states currently under a stay-at-home order having a far lower infection rate than Massachusetts, not everyone is convinced an order would make much of a difference here.

“If we really created serious lockdown orders instead of advisories I don’t think we actually wouldn’t have gained too much more ground in terms of slowing this down,” said Brigham and Women’s Dr. Michael Mina. “It’s bad. In Boston it is straining our system, but it is not completely decimating our system which was the fear.”

Even with an overall high infection in the state and a slowly climbing death rate, it’s still 2% less than the national average.

“We do not want a surge that outstrips our capability of taking care of patients who are intensively sick,” said Wellforce Dr. Michael Wagner.

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