Health & Fitness

MA Coronavirus Updates: $800M For Health Care Providers

Gov. Charlie Baker also expressed optimism about a new coronavirus testing site in Lowell that could deliver results within minutes.

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Massachusetts hospitals are going to get $400 million in a new package Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday.
Massachusetts hospitals are going to get $400 million in a new package Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday said the state will invest $800 million in the state's health care providers and more than half will go to hospitals to help offset lost revenue and increased costs of treating coronavirus patients.

Some $50 million will go to the state's nursing facilities and $30 million will go to facilities designated coronavirus care sites.

Other health care providers will receive $300+ million, with the money going to community health centers, personal care attendants, behavioral health providers and others.

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Baker said the Department of Public Health issued enhanced guidelines, including rapid testing, for residents and workers at senior living facilities.

Baker said the state has become a leader in testing.

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"Massachusetts is now one of the largest and most expansive testers in the country," Baker said.

As of Monday, there have been 74,429 patients tested at the state lab and 25 public and private labs.

A new rapid-testing site at a CVS in Lowell will be able to handle some 1,000 tests a day, Baker said. Officials are expecting the results for COVID-19 tests to come back within minutes.

Also Tuesday:

  • Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said new guidance will be issued Tuesday for grocery stores, advising them to operate at 40 percent capacity, including staff.
  • Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders confirmed 25 veterans from the Soliders' Home in Holyoke have now died, as have five at the Soldiers' Home in Chelsea.
  • Sudders also said the state has allocated 95 of the 100 ventilators it has received from the national stockpile. The state has somewhere between 1,000-1,700 ventilators "depending on how you do the math," Baker said.

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