Politics push Covid-19 off stage
By JOSH RESNEK
For the first time since March, city hall reopened to the public Monday morning to a strict regimen of allowing only 25 people to congregate at social distancing intervals on the first floor only.
The first floor is open from 8am – 12pm.
After that, those needing to access services from city hall must use the service window. Visitors must sign in and out. Masks must be worn at all times.
With the presidential debate and President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court dominating the nation’s news window, Coronavirus concerns have pushed back from primacy to secondary status for millions of Americans, and this includes residents of Massachusetts and Everett.
The beginning of this week saw a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Everett.
There were 14 Monday, alone. There were 8 new cases the day before.
This comes on the heels of last week, when on one day, there were no new cases for the time in six months.
As of Monday there were 2,246 confirmed cases of the virus in the city of Everett with 1,921 being recovered, according to state Department of Public Health records.
The cancellation of the annual Village Fest celebration, an event bringing thousands to Everett’s vibrant and growing home brew beer industry marked yet another in your face example how economic activity of nearly every kind has been profoundly affected by the pandemic.
Without the crowds, the new breweries are just surviving.
Everett’s public schools finished the second week of the new year.
Schooling is entirely remote, and will remain so until November, and even then, in class schooling will remain a function of virus numbers and efficacy.
Covid testing is available at centers throughout the city. Flu shots are also available at no cost at a variety of locations. Health officials fearing a higher than average year of flu infections are urging everyone, young and old, to be vaccinated.
In more mundane but never the less important matters for Everett residents, city hall has reported there will be no ticketing and towing for street sweeping during October because of the pandemic.