BOSTON (AP) – Gov. Charlie Baker said Friday he is asking visitors arriving in Massachusetts to self-quarantine for 14 days as the state tightens its efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The Republican governor said travelers coming into Massachusetts through the state’s airports and by train will be given flyers instructing them about the quarantine.
When Your Period Is Disrupting Your Life, It’s Time to Talk About It
For many women, heavy or irregular menstrual cycles are often brushed off as “normal”—something to…
Learn More
Instructions will also be placed at highway rest stops and on electronic highway message boards.
Baker said there is no enforcement mechanism at this point.
More on developments in Massachusetts:
ICE detainees lawsuit
Civil rights groups have filed a class action lawsuit calling for the release of all immigration detainees at a Massachusetts jail.
Lawyers for Civil Rights and other organizations argue in their federal suit filed late Thursday that detainees at the Bristol County House of Corrections in Dartmouth are living in “cruel and inhumane conditions” that put them at risk of an outbreak of the new coronavirus.
They said the detainees are not being provided sanitizer or disinfectant and only limited amounts of soap. The groups also said corrections officers have reported to work with virus-like symptoms, and new detainees are being brought into the facility without being tested or screened.
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson denied the allegations and dismissed the suit as “absurd and completely frivolous.”
He also said his office has no legal authority to release immigration detainees, who are held in custody on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
John Mohan, a spokesman for ICE’s Boston office, said ICE continues “to maintain confidence” in the jail but declined to comment on the specifics of the suit.
___
Tax deadline
Massachusetts has postponed its state income tax filing deadline to July 15. The extension corresponds with the Internal Revenue Service’s recent decision to push back the April 15 federal tax deadline.
