Governor Says Army Corps Sussing Out Patient Capacity Options
BOSTON — The state's COVID-19 command center has been in discussions with the Army Corps of Engineers about expanding patient capacity.
"Earlier today, we had a very productive conversation with U.S. Army Corps about ways they could potentially support the commonwealth and its citizens and its health-care system," Gov. Charlie Baker said at Sunday's coronavirus update. "During this outbreak, as most people know, the Army Corps has expertise and skills in designing and building critical infrastructure in a big hurry in times of need."
The governor said the Corps is looking at structures that can be easily modified into patient facilities, with a focus on plumbing, electrical load and time constraints.
He described the guidelines as a "cookbook with models" that will require structures with the right ingredients.
"I mean it's dizzying how organized and structured they are because they've done so much of this," he said. "So literally, it's like they show you what the cookbook is. And then they say to you, the kinds of places we believe our cookbook would work best in your area would be things like ... college dorms."
College dorms are one thing the state has quite a few of, the governor noted, and added that some colleges have indicated they might be willing to consider it. Other options might be very recently closed nursing homes.
"We got a sense for the kind of work that they can do here in the commonwealth and identified, along with several other folks, including people from the private sector facilities that could possibly be either converted, or modified to provide additional medical care capacity," the governor continued.
He also anticipated the number of cases of the novel coronavirus to rise as testing expands. The state Public Health Lab is now being bolstered by two private laboratories with more expected.
"Over the past two days, the number of tests completed in a day in Massachusetts has nearly doubled from 520 on Wednesday to 962 yesterday," Baker said. "That represents about an 85 percent increase in the number of completed tests. ...
"We certainly expect that we'll see an increase in the number of positive test cases, as well."
A second private drive-through testing center has opened at the AFC Urgent Care in Waltham; the first is a CVS in Shrewsbury that was announced on Thursday.
Some 300 child-care centers will open on Monday across the state to provide child care for parents in critical service sectors, including grocery workers. All early child-care centers were ordered closed with the exception of those made exempt by the state.
"We know that child care is especially critical piece of emergency services, and that it allows our frontline workers to continue their battle against COVID-19, and to continue their work," the governor said. "These need to be implemented safele and the sites should only really be used as a last resort."
A list of sites should be up on the Department of Early Education and Care's website Sunday morning.
• The National Guard was activated this past week to provide support. The governor said he expected that mayors and towns seeking Guard help would be doing so through their regional state Emergency Management Agency contacts.
• Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders confirmed that an inmate had tested positive at Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater and that protocols were being followed in sanitizing the facility and tracking and testing those in contact with the individual.
• Baker reiterated that the president has now said he will not get in the way of states buying critical supplies. The president had earlier last week told states to order their own materials but they had been blocked by the federal government buying up critical supplies.
"We immediately put a bunch of orders in with a number of vendors, American companies for the most part, and we'll look forward to seeing those get processed," he said.
• The governor again said he would not impose a "shelter in place" at this time, noting states that have are still allowing residents to shop for supplies.
"We will make decisions based on data, and guidance that we get from public health experts from state and federal authorities, and based on the facts as we understand them on the ground," he said.
Municipalities and boards of health have imposed their own restrictions within the state's framework, Baker said.
"You know, every decision I made since I got into this was either too much or too little," the governor said. "And I think we should all remember that there are trade-offs associated with every one of these, the economic consequences of these decisions for regular people no longer having a job through no fault of their own are profound.
"And if you make decisions to deal with one piece of this puzzle, you better be absolutely sure, especially if it has huge consequences over here, that you're making the right one and you're going to get maximum value out of the decision you make over here."
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