BOSTON — The New England Patriots’ home stadium has became a coronavirus testing site while a Vermont fairground has transformed into a field hospital.
Connecticut is wrestling with unrest at one of its jails and some Maine hospitals are cutting salaries despite the pandemic.
A look at those and other virus-related developments in the New England:
MASSACHUSETTS
A drive-thru coronavirus testing site opened Sunday in the parking lot of Gillette Stadium, the home stadium of the New England Patriots.
The Foxborough site is designated specifically for police officers, firefighters and other first responders and will be able to test up to 200 people a day for free.
The Republican governor, after touring the testing site Sunday, said similar facilities also will be established in other parts of the state.
One is already operational at a former horse racing track in Boston.
A field hospital is also being set up on the military base on Cape Cod to complement ones at an arena in Worcester and the convention center in Boston, the governor said.
One hundred ventilators out of the state’s initial request for 1,000 from the National Strategic Stockpile have been delivered to Massachusetts, Baker announced.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Sunday called for a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew citywide for everyone except for essential workers, starting Monday.
The Democrat also asked Bostonians to wear face coverings whenever they’re outside and ordered all sports facilities at city parks, including basketball courts, closed.
Walsh said the stepped up measures are needed because people aren’t heeding the statewide stay-at-home advisory.
Massachusetts prisons have been placed lockdown after a third inmate died Saturday of COVID-19 at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater.
Boardwalk businesses in the seaside town of Salisbury also have been ordered closed by the local health officials because police say customers and sightseers weren’t following social distancing guidelines this weekend.
As of Sunday, Massachusetts health officials said they’ve confirmed 12,500 cases of the virus and 231 deaths since the pandemic started.
A temporary, 400-bed medical facility built by the Vermont National Guard is opening at a fairgrounds.
The first 150-beds at the converted Champlain Valley Exposition Center in Essex Junction was expected to be ready Sunday, according to Lt. Col. Chris Gookin, of the state National Guard, which is building the site.
Gov. Ned Lamont’s office reported Sunday that 24 more people had died from COVID-19, bringing the state’s total to 189. More than 5,600 people in the state have tested positive out of more than 23,000 who have been tested. More than 1,100 remain hospitalized, Lamont’s office reported.
More than 100 inmates at the Carl Robinson Correctional Institution have been transferred to other state prisons following unrest at the medium security facility in Enfield.
Some inmates were removed Friday after threatening to organize hunger strikes and work stoppages, officials said. Then on Saturday, a correctional officer was punched in the face while interceding in a fight between three inmates.
Two hospitals in northern Maine are cutting pay for hospital staff amid the pandemic.
Doctors, registered nurse anesthetists and administrative staff at Houlton Regional Hospital in Houlton will see a 10% salary cut, as will regular staff — except for nurses and respiratory therapists — at Cary Medical Center in Caribou, the Bangor Daily News reports.
The hospitals say they’re seeing a steep drop in revenue even as they’re bracing for a surge of virus patients and that other health centers in the state are enacting similar cuts.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is warning small-business owners of a virus-related scam in which owners are being falsely told they need to pay a fee in order to apply for payroll relief loans through the new Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act.
As of Saturday, the state has confirmed more than 450 positive cases and 10 deaths from the virus.
Three staff members at the state prison complex in Cranston have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the state Department of Corrections.
More than 900 have tested positive for the virus and 25 have died in Rhode Island since the pandemic started, Gov. Gina Raimondo said Sunday.