77 hit by pandemic taking hold locally
By Josh Resnek
One week ago, 17 Everett residents had contracted the Coronavirus but no one had yet succumbed to the virus.
What a difference a week makes when an epidemic is hitting home.
Three residents of the city have died since last week.
The Tuesday count stood at 77 in Everett infected, with reports that the Cambridge Alliance Hospital (formerly the Whidden) has been deluged with new admissions.
Some of the patients arriving at the hospital were unconscious, according to hospital officials.
As many as 20 patients are presently in the ICU ward receiving intensive care.
The overflow in Everett is being sent to Boston. No visitors are presently allowed at the local hospital here. Ten out 20 in the ICU are younger people between the ages of 22-58.
The three whom passed at the hospital included a 41 year old male.
In neighboring Revere, 166 have been infected by the virus, the vast majority of them at the Jack Sutter House on Revere Beach which houses elderly.
Five have died there in the last week, dozens are infected.
Chelsea has 157 reported cases presently, with two deaths.
Some health experts are predicting the virus will reach its height over the next two weeks, causing these figures to rise dramatically.
It is probable that local figures will double and triple by April 15th – with many experts predicting the numbers could be much higher by that time, or just a bit later in April.
The city remains in a lockdown which was declared early in March. The schools remain closed.
The Health Department is functioning.
Other departments remain working but with skeleton staffing and very little presence at city hall which is closed to the public.
The city has reverted to a real time platform with its website and Facebook site.
Presently, this is how the city government is communicating with the Everett public that is locked inside.
There will be a Zoom virtual council meeting on Thursday that will be available online.
Zoom is the operating system by which virtual meetings can be held – this is to say – meetings where all the participants remain in their homes and participate in an online conference that is broadcast over the Internet and which residents can watch and listen to inside their homes.
General activity in the city has declined precipitously since last week.
Many people are out and about driving in their automobiles, but for the most part, much of the city’s robust economic activity has come to a crashing stop, with many thousands laid off or deprived of their incomes during the past two weeks.
Small businesses have been closed and crushed.
Restaurants have been closed.
Takeout is working but cannot sustain or make up for the greater losses being suffered.
For the working class and the underclass, these times are especially difficult.
The elderly are affected in a different way.
Elderly in city housing are concerned about getting sick because of proximity to others in crowded living conditions.
They are not worried about losing their apartments or their jobs. They are not working.
They live in public housing.
However the elderly have special health needs.
With the American health system ravaged almost to a bare bone, everything elective has been cancelled due to the epidemic.
The city’s first responders – police and fire – are carrying on, every call is answered.
First responders are placing themselves at great risk during the pandemic.
Every call puts them in danger of getting sick.