Reopening update coming next week, Governor Baker says

Katie Lannan

On the heels of updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance advising that fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in public, Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday said Massachusetts “will be updating our reopening plans early next week.”

Baker, who was in Washington, D.C. on Friday for meetings with federal officials and members of Congress, posted on Twitter calling the CDC updates “great news.” “Massachusetts is on track to vaccinate more than 4 million residents soon. Please stay safe while we prepare next steps to return to our new normal,” Baker said.

The mask mandate in Massachusetts, which requires face coverings in indoor public places and outdoors when social distancing can’t be maintained, remains in place.

On Thursday, when the CDC announced its new guidance, a Baker aide said the governor would update the state’s COVID-19 restrictions “in the near future.” Baker has said that the Aug. 1 date he’s penciled in for a full lift of business restrictions could be moved up depending on public health data, and critics of his reopening timeline have noted that it puts Massachusetts on a slower path than in other northeast states.

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance on Thursday called for Baker “to embrace the good news and begin getting things back to normal.