Baker Skips Coronavirus Summit With Other Governors

MASSACHUSETTS — Gov. Charlie Baker did not attend a weekend summit of the six northeastern states aimed at coordinating coronavirus responses in the region.

In a statement, spokeswoman Sarah Finlaw said Baker had a scheduling conflict that prevented him from attending the online meeting organized by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"Governor Baker and members of the Baker-Polito Administration regularly collaborate with other Northeast states regarding regional strategies to fight COVID-19," Finlaw said. "The Administration is monitoring public health data and has recently put in place additional targeted measures to stop the spread of the virus including a stay at home advisory, early closures and a strengthened mask order, and at this time has no plans to make immediate changes to our current public health protocols."

Baker wasn't the only governor to send staff members in his place to the conference call. The governors of Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine also missed the call.

Cuomo called the summit for governors from states near New York on Friday. Cuomo said it's important for the states to align their policies and responses to the coronavirus pandemic.

"The ideal is alignment," Cuomo said Friday. "That is not a reality because different states do have different situations, and they’re in different positions. But we believe we’re going to have to be taking additional steps and to the extent we can share information and align action, we’ll do that."

The summit comes as the nation sees a surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths. On Sunday, Massachusetts Department of Public Health officials said they believe there are more than 30,000 active coronavirus cases in the state after reporting another 2,076 confirmed cases.

Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).