Today, Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito will join Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders, Massachusetts Health Connector Executive Director Louis Gutierrez and Family Health Center of Worcester President & CEO Lou Brady after a tour of the vaccination site at Family Health Center of Worcester and provide an update on COVID-19 vaccination. A live stream will be available at https://www.facebook.com/SenatorBruceTarr about noon.
Scheduled Overnight Test Openings of the Plum Island Drawbridge over Plum Island River
Test openings will occur through April 11, through 4:30 a.m. on Monday, April 12
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is announcing that it will be conducting multiple test openings of the Plum Island Drawbridge located on the Plum Island Turnpike over the Plum Island River in Newbury. The test openings will take place from 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 11, through 4:30 a.m. on Monday, April 12.
The purpose of the test openings is to ensure that the drawbridge is ready to operate for the upcoming boating season and to train new drawbridge operators. The drawbridge testing operations are part of a $4.19 million District 4 drawbridge operation, maintenance and repair contract awarded to SPS New England. Drivers who are traveling through the area should reduce speed and use caution.
The following is an update from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) in regard to the nationwide system outage of motor vehicle inspection services by the RMV’s vendor, Applus Technologies (Applus).
Status of vehicle inspections
Applus Technologies, a vendor that facilitates vehicle inspections in MA and several other states, experienced a cyber-attack in several states on March 30, preventing the RMV’s vehicle inspection stations from conducting vehicle inspections statewide. The RMV will hold the vendor accountable for this disruption and is working with Applus to restore services as soon as possible. Applus has indicated that their systems will be operating by Saturday, April 17th in Massachusetts and the Registry will continue working with the vendor to meet this goal. It has been 12 days since the Registry learned of the Applus cyber-attack, and the outage has had a significant impact to the many business owners who employ staff to deliver vehicle inspection services to the citizens of the Commonwealth.
Background information
The RMV is allowing a grace period for specific motor vehicle inspection requirements outlined below:
· Motor vehicles with expired inspection stickers from March 2021, (“3” sticker on windshield), should be granted until April 30, 2021, to obtain an inspection.
· Vehicles newly purchased or registered on or after Tuesday, March 23, 2021, should be granted until April 30, 2021, to obtain an inspection. Newly purchased vehicles must typically be inspected within seven (7) days of registration.
· Customers who recently had a failed inspection and are in the 60-day free retest window will be afforded one extra day for each day Applus’s system remains unavailable but should plan to facilitate their inspection as soon as possible once the system is restored and stations are online.
The RMV has advised law enforcement that compliance with the safety/emissions inspection requirement has not been possible since March 30, in light of the outage caused by the malware attack against Applus. The RMV is working in close partnership with the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS), the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association (MCOPA), the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) and other stakeholders to mitigate the impacts of the outage.
Historically, motor vehicle inspections average approximately 15,000 per day, with as many as 20,000+ inspections being conducted on the first two days of the month and the last two days of the month. The RMV estimates that there are between 40,000 to 50,000 vehicles that may still have a March sticker and require an inspection.
Please visit https://www.mavehiclecheck.com/ for more information on the outage.
The Baker-Polito Administration announced today the expansion of the pre-registration to include some regional collaboratives and improved features to allow for vaccination location selection during appointment booking.
Later this week, the Commonwealth’s preregistration system will expand to include the first regional collaboratives to the system. The Amherst/Northampton and Marshfield regional collaboratives will be the first to come online, and more regional collaboratives are working with the Command Center and tech teams to ensure they meet the operational and technological requirements to be added to the preregistration system.
Next week, the user experience for the preregistration system will change for people who are contacted with the opportunity to book appointments. People will have the opportunity to select their vaccination location before proceeding to select from available appointments. To date, around 1.5 million people have preregistered using our system, with over 800,000 having been contacted with the opportunity to book appointments. We will continue to make improvements to the system in the weeks ahead, to make the process even easier as more people become eligible.
Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles Implementing Grace Period for Certain Expired Inspection Stickers
Law enforcement aware of these instances of expired stickers due to Applus’ vendor outage
Vehicle owners with expired March 2021 stickers should plan to obtain inspection by end of April; additional time requested for newly purchased or registered vehicles
Additional time will be granted for failed motor vehicle inspection and retests
Due to the nationwide system outage of motor vehicle inspection services by its vendor Applus Technologies (Applus) impacting inspection stations and motor vehicle owners, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) is allowing a grace period for specific motor vehicle inspection requirements outlined below. The RMV is working in close partnership with the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS), the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association (MCOPA), the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) and other stakeholders to mitigate the impacts of the outage.
The RMV continues to urge Applus to safely and swiftly restore services and provide additional information on the extent of the outage’s impact, which began on Tuesday, March 30. The three-phase process required to return the MA Vehicle Check program to full service that is secure and safe has been in progress. These phases are 1) Remediation (completed), 2) Restoration and System Testing (current phase), and 3) Go-Live and Post- Go-Live Support. The restoration phase, which is the current phase, involves a deliberate and methodical resetting of Applus Technologies’ IT environment and will take some time to restore the safety and emissions stations to testing capabilities fully. Based on recent conversations, inspections will not be performed today, Tuesday, April 6, Wednesday, April 7, Thursday, April 8, or Friday, April 9.
“The RMV shares the frustrations and disappointment with the tremendous inconvenience Applus’s outage is causing and recognizes the significant impacts on customers and business owners across the Commonwealth,” said Acting Registrar of Motor Vehicles Colleen Ogilvie. “The RMV remains committed to its efforts to ensure Applus makes Massachusetts a priority in quickly and safely returning the inspection program to operation.”
The RMV is allowing a grace period for certain expired motor vehicle inspections. The RMV has advised law enforcement that compliance with the safety/emissions inspection requirement has not been possible since March 30, in light of the outage caused by the malware attack against Applus.
Motor vehicles with expired inspection stickers from March 2021 (“3” sticker on windshield) should be granted until April 30, 2021, to obtain an inspection.
Vehicles newly purchased or registered on or after Tuesday, March 23, 2021, should be granted until April 30, 2021, to obtain an inspection. Newly purchased vehicles must typically be inspected within seven (7) days of registration.
Customers who recently had an inspection rejection and are in the 60-day free retest window will be afforded one extra day for each day Applus’s system remains unavailable but should plan to facilitate their inspection as soon as possible once the system is restored and stations are online.
The RMV is taking these and other steps to mitigate the impacts of Applus’s outage. Additionally, the RMV, in partnership with the Department of Environmental Protection, has formally notified Applus that it is in breach of its contract and is exploring all possible remedial measures pursuant to the terms of the contract as Applus works to restore service as expediently as possible.
For additional information and details on these and other RMV service offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit www.mass.gov/rmv or https://www.mass.gov/info-details/rmv-covid-19-information.
Baker-Polito Administration Reminds the Public that Individuals 55+ and Individuals with One Certain Medical Condition Eligible for Vaccine April 5th, Adopts CDC Guidance for New Medical Conditions to Expand Eligibility for More Individuals on April 5th Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services
55+ and Residents with One Certain Medical Condition On Monday, April 5th, residents 55+ and residents with one certain medical condition will be eligible to receive vaccine at any of the Commonwealth’s over 300 vaccination locations, including 269 pharmacy locations. With this group, more than 1 million additional residents will be eligible for vaccine in the Commonwealth. The full timeline is available at mass.gov/COVIDVaccinePhases .
The Administration was informed early this week of a one-time increased shipment of 100,000 J&J vaccines that will arrive in the state early next week. Depending on supply from the federal government, it could take weeks for people to be notified that an appointment is available at a mass vaccination site. Individuals can learn more about the Commonwealth’s vaccination sites and pre-registration by visiting vaxfinder.mass.gov. CDC Guidance
In accordance with CDC guidelines, the Commonwealth has adopted recent additions to the list of conditions that cause individuals to be at an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Individuals with one of the following conditions are eligible on Monday, April 5th:
* Cancer* Chronic kidney disease
* Chronic lung diseases, including COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), asthma (moderate-to-severe), interstitial lung disease, cystic fibrosis, and pulmonary hypertension* Dementia or other neurological conditions
* Diabetes (type 1 or type 2)
* Down syndrome
* Heart conditions (such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathies or hypertension)
* HIV infection
* Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system)
* Liver disease
* Overweight and obesity
* Pregnancy
* Sickle cell disease or thalassemia
* Smoking, current or former
* Solid organ or blood stem cell transplant
* Stroke or cerebrovascular disease, which affects blood flow to the brain
* Substance use disorders
For individuals that have already pre-registered but would like to update their information to reflect the new medical conditions recognized by the CDC and Massachusetts as of April 5th: The administration is building a feature for individuals to edit their submission that will be made available soon
Governor Baker will receive his COVID-19 vaccination at the Hynes Convention Center mass vaccination site and will provide an update on COVID-19. A live stream will be available at www.facebook.com/SenatorBruceTarr.
