As the coronavirus surge begins, it’s unclear how many more ventilators are coming from the federal stockpile, and when they will arrive.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency sent Massachusetts only 100 of the more than 1,000 ventilators requested, Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday. Baker said Wednesday he is exploring his own strategies to obtain ventilators for the state.

“It’s hard to believe we’re in a period where hospitals might have to make difficult decisions about how to distribute resources like ventilators, but that’s the worst-case scenario, and we must plan for it,” he said. The Department of Public Health has already asked health care facilities to identify any ventilators they have, and to ensure they’re in working order and ready to go for COVID-19 patients.

The solution to the ventilator problem might be closer than Washington. General Electric employees in Lynn on Wednesday called for increased production of ventilators out of the underused aviation manufacturing plant, and the rehiring of recently laid-off workers to do so. In other parts of the country, General Electric’s health care arm has doubled the number of ventilators produced.

If the company adequately cleaned up the Lynn plant and brought back laid-off employees, workers say, they could begin manufacturing much-needed ventilator equipment for hospitals across the country, while still producing the defense products ordered from the plant by the US military.

“Workers know what to do. We have empty buildings, we have communities you can put jobs and manufacturing back into, making a product that is heavily needed by society right now,” Adam Kaszynski, president of the local chapter of  IUE-CWA, told Rolling Stone.

General Electric hasn’t responded to media questions about the Lynn facility and converting aviation plants to manufacture ventilators. Instead, it has touted its partnership with Ford Motor Company in its health care facilities (outside of Massachusetts) to produce 50,000 ventilators in 100 days.

For the Bay State, ventilator production can’t come soon enough. Coronavirus, which has killed more than 350 residents, has not yet hit its peak, which experts project to be between April 10 and April 20.  The state’s congressional delegation is asking for an additional 1,600 ventilators, but hasn’t received a response from the Trump administration.

SARAH BETANCOURT

BEACON HILL

State officials concede that comprehensive data on the racial and ethnic breakdown of coronavirus victims are sparse, and pledge to do better. (Boston Globe)

Gov. Charlie Baker fends off marijuana firms suing him for declaring them non-essential by saying he’s focused on the surge and saving lives. (CommonWealth)

Virus notes: Attorney General Maura Healey is launching her own probe into the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home…Baker files legislation providing more protection for frontline workers from lawsuits….Grocery stores required to limit access to 40 percent of allowable occupancy. (CommonWealth)

Lawmakers are debating whether to advance legislation that would halt all evictions or just delay them. (Boston Globe)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

A new analysis shows Boston neighborhoods with the highest coronavirus rates are also those with the highest concentration of workers in so-called “essential services” like health care, transportation, and food service, which are still operating and potentially exposing workers to the virus. (MassLive)

Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan said he’s instructing the Police Department to send officers to golf courses, which are supposed to be shuttered due to the virus, to break up games. (The Enterprise)

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno says his city needs more masks. (MassLive)

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh unveils a $3.65 billion proposed city budget for 2021, a 4.4 percent increase over this year’s spending plan. (Boston Globe)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

If you survive COVID-19, are you immune? If you’re a health care worker, do you turn into a super worker unaffected by the disease? (CommonWealth)

COVID-19 is ravaging long-term care facilities, places where those most vulnerable to the disease are concentrated. (CommonWealth) The Royal Falmouth Nursing and Rehabilitation Center will become a virus treatment facility. (Cape Cod Times)

Staffing problems continue at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, despite the arrival of the National Guard to help and a new management team installed by the Baker administration. (Boston Globe)

Patients who rely on hydroxychloroquine — which President Trump has touted as a potential treatment for COVID-19 — to treat debilitating rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions are worried that supplies will run short if there is a run on the drug as potential treatment for the virus. (MassLive)

Volunteers are building masks based on snorkels for health care workers treating COVID-19 patients. (Salem News)

Hospitals across the state are laying off or furloughing employees even as the state starts pumping $800 million into the troubled health care system. (MassLive)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders drops out of the 2020 race for president, during an election cycle that has suddenly become more about coronavirus than broader issues. (New York Times) Sanders told late-night host Stephen Colbert that former Vice President Joe Biden could pull in his supporters if he indicated a move towards more progressive politics. (Newsweek) As Biden becomes the presumptive Democratic nominee, talk turns to who his running mate will be, with talk intensifying that California senator and former presidential hopeful Kamala Harris may get the nod. (ABC News)

About 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment benefit claims last week. (USA Today)

We’re now seeing the price to be paid for abandoning social norms, says David Cash, the dean of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at UMass Boston. (CommonWealth)

LIVING WITH CORONAVIRUS

The number of applications for the state’s social safety net programs is up in recent weeks, as the unemployment rate continues to rise. (State House News)

More than 50 patients in South Korea who had recovered from coronavirus have tested positive again, with researchers trying to determine whether they became reinfected or the virus is becoming “reactivated.” (MassLive)

A lab affiliated with MIT says an analysis of sewage in an unidentified “large metropolitan area” of the state suggests more than 100,000 people in that region are infected with coronavirus. The confirmed statewide tally as of Wednesday was less than 17,000. (Boston Herald)

ELECTIONS

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he is issuing an executive order allowing all voters to cast absentee ballots from home in the June primary. (The Hill)

Joe Battenfeld says Joe Kennedy is running circles around Ed Markey with his nimble digital campaign in the coronavirus era. (Boston Herald)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

The federal CARES Act is turning out to be a godsend for churches because they are considered small businesses eligible for aid under the legislation. (Telegram & Gazette)

Self-employed workers are struggling as the wait continues for the state website to begin accepting applications for unemployment pay that was funded through the federal CARES Act approved nearly two weeks ago. (MassLive)

EDUCATION

Students at Farley Elementary School in Hudson will receive their lessons in a combination of English and Portuguese to increase bilingualism and biliteracy. (OJornal)

Meet the crew turning dorms into shelters for the homeless. (DigBoston) Hampshire College is making dorm space available to homeless people in Amherst. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

South Shore Conservatory classes are now completely online, but students say it’s still worthwhile even with the change. (Patriot Ledger)

ARTS/CULTURE

Musicians are turning to online performances to receive support. (DigBoston)

TRANSPORTATION

JetBlue seeks federal approval to suspend service from Worcester Regional Airport.(Telegram & Gazette)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Two staffers at the Bristol County sheriff’s office test positive for COVID-19. (CommonWealth)

The state’s Civil Service Commission has ordered the Boston Police Department to place a black applicant at the top of its list for hires after a department investigator bypassed him for consideration over a criminal case 16 years earlier for which he was not convicted. (Bay State Banner)

MEDIA

The value of Gannett stock, despite the creation of a poison pill, keeps falling. (Nieman Journalism Lab)

A philanthropic fund is set up to support Philadelphia journalism organizations. (Lenfest Institute)