From left to right: state Sen. Jo Comerford, Gov. Charlie Baker and state Rep. Michael Driscoll. State House News Service photos | File

After hosting an oversight hearing that top state health officials skipped, high-ranking lawmakers are now calling on Gov. Charlie Baker to consider a menu of pandemic management options, including quarantine and isolation shelters and a pause on school mask mandate exemptions.

Baker on Tuesday introduced an advisory recommending masking in indoor public places, outlined plans to have the National Guard assist the health care sector, and put a pause on non-essential, elective procedures at many hospitals. But the governor also said people should move ahead with holiday plans, citing gains made in the virus fight and encouraging anyone who is eligible to join the millions who have received COVID-19 vaccinations.

In a letter to Baker Tuesday, Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness Co-chairs Sen. Jo Comerford of Northampton and Rep. William Driscoll of Milton expressed support for the National Guard call-up but expressed concerns about numerous issues based on testimony they received last week.

“We have found ourselves in the mid-holiday season with increasingly high COVID transmission rates, along with at or near capacity hospitals throughout the state. We are still learning about the Delta variant and navigating its surge, and now the emerging Omicron variant could have monumental impacts given its potential increased transmissibility,” they wrote, and raised fears of a “destabilization” of the state’s hospital system.

Citing the feedback they received at their Dec. 16 hearing, they recommended adoption of “temporary and durable steps,” including:

• Reinstating a mask mandate for all indoor public spaces, an idea they said has “broad support among public health, hospitals, and medical experts” and an idea Senate President Karen Spilka has endorsed.
• Closing the race/ethnicity gap in pediatric vaccinations, an effort the lawmakers said should include coordination with local public health officials and “improved translation and explicit outreach efforts, as well as work to decrease the spread of misinformation.”
• Setting public targets and timelines for delivery of booster shots into Bay Staters’ arms.
• Expanding in-school COVID-19 testing.
• Pausing mask mandate exemptions for schools that have reached the vaccination goal until after January “or a period when transmission and trends are dropping precipitously week-over-week and greater hospital capacity exists.”

Democrats wield veto-proof majorities in both branches, but for now, they appear poised to let Baker continue to make the major decisions about pandemic management. Lawmakers are in the midst of a seven-week break from formal sessions and even with the urgency they are attaching to the current situation, have not signaled any intent to try to hold formal sessions and take action.

Asked why the legislature isn’t stepping in to act, Comerford and Friedman said in a statement to the News Service, “It is the Governor’s responsibility, through his executive powers, to put temporary measures in place to protect public health in an emergency, which in this case means mitigating the current impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in real-time as the situation continues to evolve. That’s why the Senate is advocating for the Governor to do more immediately.”