HOW WILL GOV. CHARLIE BAKER decide when to reopen businesses and services?

“Data, data, data” and the actions of other states were the two factors Baker mentioned on Thursday when asked about his reopening decisions.

Although Baker continues to say that he will not allow businesses to reopen more broadly until the spread of coronavirus slows, he has been loosening some restrictions. He allowed florists to deliver flowers in time for Mother’s Day. On Thursday, state officials updated their guidelines to let golf courses reopen immediately.

Massachusetts was one of the last states in the nation to let golf courses reopen. Locally, New Hampshire will reopen golf courses May 11. Vermont, like Massachusetts, let golf courses reopen Thursday. Connecticut’s golf courses have been open with restrictions since March 25.

Baker, at his daily press briefing on Thursday, refused to go along with a reporter’s suggestion that he was overly cautious. He said he was influenced by the actions of other surrounding states. “We basically took the model that was used in several states around us that we felt was consistent with what our concerns were around it, and applied it,” Baker said.

The new state regulations will let players onto golf courses, although club facilities will remain closed. The only employees allowed will be those necessary for security and maintenance, and employees will have to wear face coverings.

Golfers will have to remain six feet apart from each other and play in groups of no larger than four. Players will not be allowed to use golf carts or caddies, and will have to carry their own bag or use a pushcart. Golfers will have to stay in their cars until 15 minutes before their tee time and return to their cars immediately after they finish playing.

The point of golf, putting the ball in the hole, will also be suspended. Hole liners will be raised so balls will never actually make it into the hole, which will prevent golfer after golfer from risking contamination by sticking their hand into the hole to pick up their ball.

Baker said he believes these rules create the “safest, most appropriate” level of play, and the rules are similar to those in other states, like New York.

Looking beyond golf, Baker said he will continue talking to officials in surrounding states about plans to reopen. “It’s likely to be that what happens in Massachusetts looks reasonably over time like what happens in a bunch of other places,” Baker said. He predicted there would be “a fair amount of uniformity among states in the northeast” about how reopening occurs. But at the same time, Baker stressed that each state is unique in the trajectory of the virus. Massachusetts has been one of the hardest hit states in the country.

Asked when doctors could resume performing elective medical procedures, Baker declined to give a hard answer. “Data, data, data is going to drive most of the decisions around when these things happen,” he said. He said the advisory board led by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito will have to determine what activities can be done safely and what mechanisms can be put in place to monitor how people are performing.

Baker has said the data he is looking at includes coronavirus cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and intensive care unit capacity. On Thursday, hospitalizations and ICC patients both dropped significantly. New cases were moderately lower than the day before but deaths continued to mount, with 86 fatalities in long-term care facilities and 46 in hospitals and everywhere else.

One other industry that might reopen – over Baker’s objection – is gun stores. The Boston Globe reported Thursday that a federal judge, in response to a lawsuit brought by gun shops, said he planned to issue an order allowing gun shops to open on the grounds that Baker’s decision to close them by deeming them “non-essential” infringes on the Second Amendment rights of those seeking to buy a gun. US District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock said he would require gun shops to operate with safety restrictions, including requiring shopping by appointment only and putting in place social distancing requirements.

Baker said Thursday that he had not yet seen the ruling and would have to discuss it with Attorney General Maura Healey’s office. He said the administration will comply with any judicial ruling.