Dozens of states are trying to cope with a new wave of COVID-19 cases, believed to have been caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus, and come up with a game plan on how they will address it.
Massachusetts is one of those states trying to manage the situation as local numbers indicate that each county in the state is currently experiencing “high rates of transmission.”
In response, Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday activated members of the National Guard. National Guard members will be used to support the state's understaffed hospitals.
The Biden administration is also stepping in to help by sending medical equipment and other resources to states that are struggling. President Joe Biden on Tuesday rolled out his new plan, geared toward the fight against COVID-19.
As a result, Massachusetts residents should start to see some changes in the state's COVID-19 response.
Biden said in the coming weeks all states will need to assess their hospital needs and start expanding their hospital bed capacity. The federal government will pay for those tasks.
The federal government will also work to pre-position essential COVID-19 supplies, from the national stockpile, to locations across the country.
The Biden administration will also work on ways to expand testing and vaccination efforts.
"I'll be deploying hundreds more vaccinators and more sites to help get the booster shots in people's arms. I've ordered FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to stand up new pop-up vaccination clinics all across the country where you can get that booster shot,” the president said during his announcement.
Massachusetts currently has one of the highest vaccination rates in the nation. Maine is the only state with a higher rate.
Boston area Rep. Ayanna Pressley and several other lawmakers, however, say there is still room for improvement with regards to how Massachusetts officials collect and analyze data on breakout COVID-19 cases.
Pressley, along with U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Barbara Lee of California, all Democrats, are now calling on the director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "to monitor, report, and address racial and other ethnic demographic disparities in breakthrough COVID-19 cases."
"We urge you to resume collecting data on COVID-19 breakthrough infections nationwide with breakdowns by race, ethnicity, and other demographic characteristics and to make this data publicly available as soon as possible. Comprehensive data collection would allow experts to better understand patterns in breakthrough cases, identify COVID-19 variants earlier, and analyze the potential effect of compounding ‘racial and ethnic inequities in wealth, health, education, work housing, and medical care’ on vaccine response,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
The legislators added that public health experts previously said that additional data on breakthrough cases could provide critical information on the spread of new coronavirus variants, including omicron.