By Bob Katzen

Governor Baker announced that in order to reduce large concentrations of people at beaches during the COVID-19 outbreak, the state is closing the parking lots at beaches managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. The beaches themselves will remain open to all for transitory use only like walking, jogging and biking.

“In this particular case, we got a lot of input from a lot of places that people were not treating any of the distancing rules at the beaches the way they should have been,” Baker said. “And our solution to that is if people can’t play by the rules, if it’s too big a temptation, then we’re just going to get rid of the parking. And if you’re going to walk to the beach, OK, but you better be sure you abide by the rules associated with social distancing.”