As the Commonwealth of Massachusetts prepares to enter the next phase of the reopening plan on Monday, health care leaders from throughout the state play a major role in Governor Baker's decision making process.
On Monday, March 22nd Massachusetts is scheduled to begin Phase Four, Step 1 of the reopening plan. Dr. Eric Dickson, President and CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester is the Chair of the Massachusetts Hospital and Healthcare Association. Dr. Dickson says the Governor uses information from the health care providers from across the Commonwealth when planning out the reopening process. Dr. Dickson said the data and time are right to continue reopening Massachusetts.
Dr. Eric Dickson, "The Massachusetts Hospital and Healthcare Association meets regularly with the Governor, with the Secretary of Health & Human Services. We advise them about what we are seeing on the ground and then he takes that information and information from multiple other sources. I think we're still on track to open up safely. We see about a 3% positivity rate right now within the city and Central Massachusetts. This summer it was down to 1%. We would rather see it down there, but I think that lower level of infection than we were seeing previously we can start to do some reopening."
Dr. Dickson adds that hospitals across the state did not see any up-tick or spike as a result of Massachusetts entering Phase Three, Step Two on March 1st.