Starting Dec. 11, Massachusetts hospitals must scale back the number of elective surgeries performed, Gov. Charlie Baker said during a press conference, according to The Boston Globe.
The order, which will be limited to inpatient procedures that can safely be postponed, aims to free up more healthcare workers to respond to an influx of COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Massachusetts HHS Secretary Marylou Sudders added that this order differs from the more stringent ban on elective procedures implemented this spring.
"Let me be clear. This is a limited curtailment of elective procedures to promote the redeployment of staff that perform non-essential elective procedures to support the essential emerging inpatient care," Ms. Sudders said, according to local news station WBUR. "It is not the blanket across the board curtailment that we implemented in the first surge."