GOV. CHARLIE BAKER and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh had “very productive” conversations Saturday with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers around identifying, retrofitting, and using college dorms, closed nursing homes, and other facilities as extra medical treatment capacity as the coronavirus pandemic continues. Though the state has already taken drastic steps to slow the spread […]
COVID-19
Posted inHealth Care
Virus notes: 1st COVID-19 death in Mass.
A SUFFOLK COUNTY MAN in his late 80s died Thursday night from COVID-19, becoming the state’s first fatality from the disease. “Obviously, it’s heartbreaking to say, but this is certainly a day we all knew would come,” said Gov. Charlie Baker at a State House press briefing. Marylou Sudders, the governor’s secretary of health and […]
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What our COVID-19 daily diary tells us
AT 4 P.M. EVERY DAY, the state Department of Public Health releases its daily diary of the coronavirus epidemic. The numbers on confirmed cases, tests, and hospitalizations rip through the news media and the public, acting as a barometer of how the state is doing in responding to the pandemic. The trend lines are fairly […]
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COVID-19 report at immigration court
ATTORNEYS WHO WORK at Boston’s immigration court say an individual who appeared in the courtroom this week tested presumptive positive for COVID-19, although there has been no official announcement. Susan Roses, a Lynn-based immigration attorney, said on Facebook on Wednesday that she heard Judge Jennifer Mulcahy say that a person who had been in the […]
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Virus notes: Cuomo-Baker: Style and substance
NEW YORK GOV. ANDREW CUOMO said the number of coronavirus cases in his state might not peak for another 45 days, while Gov. Charlie Baker says there are so many variables at play that it’s hard to make an estimate right now. At a State House press conference on Tuesday, Baker indicated he has been […]
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Federal immigration services offices to be shuttered
Updated Tuesday evening: Staffers and a spokesperson from US Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed with CommonWealth that the agency is suspending “all face-to-face services” with applicants at all field and asylum offices nationwide from Wednesday, March 18, to at least April 1. USCIS field offices will send notices to applicants with scheduled appointments and naturalization ceremonies […]
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Baker defends Trump comment on respirators
WITH MASSACHUSETTS HOSPITALS struggling to obtain badly needed stockpiled equipment for their patients and frontline workers, Gov. Charlie Baker defended President Trump’s message to the nation’s governors on Monday that they should try getting respirators, ventilators, and other equipment themselves. “We are backing you in terms of equipment and getting what you need,” the New […]
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Virus notes: Casinos closing; 1st Cape case, immigration changes
PRESIDENT TRUMP says he just took a COVID-19 test, there are 2,200 cases in the US with 50 deaths, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has relaxed its testing standards. The US is extending travel restrictions to the United Kingdom and Ireland after banning flights into the country from the rest of Europe on […]
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Only 475 tested for virus so far
THE STATE DEPARTMENT of Public Health as of Friday had tested only 475 individuals for COVID-19, but officials say the amount of testing should dramatically increase with new federal guidelines that significantly relax restrictions on who can be tested and an expansion of the number of labs performing the analysis. The state lab until Thursday […]
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Despite virus, business as usual at immigration courts
IMMIGRATION COURTS are full of people, often pressed together in tight quarters. But the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which runs all immigration courts, has refused to shut down courtrooms nationwide, or develop a mitigation strategy to stem the spread of COVID-19. In Massachusetts, immigration attorneys and their clients are very concerned. Some, like East […]