MA Singled Out As Obama Weighs In On Coronavirus Response

Former President Barack Obama weighed in on the federal response to the coronavirus crisis, saying a "coherent national plan" is still necessary, while praising the response by Massachusetts.

"While we continue to wait for a coherent national plan to navigate this pandemic, states like Massachusetts are beginning to adopt their own public health plans to combat the virus--before it's too late," Obama tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

Obama linked to a New Yorker article from this week titled "It's Not Too Late To Go On Offense Against The Coronavirus." The article, written by a special adviser to the Bay State's pandemic response, singles out two ways the state has been ahead of much of the country.

First is contact tracing, the first-in-the-nation program Gov. Charlie Baker announced at the beginning of April. The program, which is still growing, consists of a virtual call center that reaches out to people who test positive for the coronavirus. The call center then tries to get in touch with anyone that person may have had close contact with and alerts them.

The second is testing. Baker announced a goal in March of testing 3,500 Massachusetts residents a day. More than double that target are now being administered daily.

Significantly more testing is one of the benchmarks federal health officials pointed to before the economy begins to reopen in full.

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