The pandemic has hit locally
By Josh Resnek
The coronavirus is now officially in Everett, according to city hall officials who told the Leader Herald: “There are now 3 who have been diagnosed with coronavirus.”
Officials were not at liberty to detail the identities of those who have come down with the virus or where they are being treated or what their condition is.
The arrival here of the virus is not yet an ominous sign of things to come but rather, is a sign that no community can be considered safe from the virus now sweeping the nation and the world.
Health officials in the neighboring cities of Chelsea, Revere and Lynn have also reported a number of residents have become infected with the coronavirus.
Everett’s state of emergency has been eclipsed by Governor Charlie Baker’s newest edict issued Monday requiring all non-essential businesses and operations of every kind to shutter their doors until the crisis has passed.
The governor has hesitated to institute the sheltering of all people in their homes for fear of its Draconian nature.
He has said he will revisit his edicts from day to day and alter them as the crisis requires.
He has been very careful about limiting or curtailing entirely everyone’s constitutional right to their freedom of movement.
City officials, and especially the Health Department, are now confronted with a multi front war against the virus.
On the one hand, Health Department officials must be prepared to enact their edicts.
On the other hand, this is a city where everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is having a tough time with businesses not taking in any income with the likelihood they could ultimately catch the virus.
Who is essential and who is not, who remains open and who cannot has raised some concern about the implementation of the emergency order.
What we know for certain is that all restaurants in Everett have been closed but are allowed to sell and to serve food to go.
This is short shrift for restaurant folks in Everett and across the state and the nation.
No restaurant can survive financially selling food to go.
All major food operations in Everett have been put on hold — Panera Bread, Oliveira’s, Common Ground, 8/10 and all major chain restaurants on the Revere Beach Parkway from Revere to Kelly’s in Medford have been reduced to take-out only.
The half dozen or so new businesses in Everett selling craft beers are all shut, putting into crisis this exciting new component of the city’s bar scene.
The city’s residents appear to be confining themselves to their homes and apartments.
Although the city’s parks have been closed, many residents are taking walks with their families and getting outside at a distance.