Everett remains one of the hottest cities
By JOSH RESNEK
Many dozens of cars, filled with people wanting to get tested for Covid-19 Saturday, snaked all the way from the intersection of Santilli Highway and Air Force Road, up Rivergreen Drive, around the rotary into the parking lots at Rivergreen Park to the test collection site near the soccer field.
It was an incredible display of numbers concerned about the COVID-19 lining up to be tested.
Several Cataldo Ambulance EMTs, layered in personal protective gear, hustled from car to car, administering the nasal swab test and collecting the samples to be sent to the lab in an all-day marathon of testing.
The drive-through site opened at noon. By 1 pm, the line extended all the way to Santilli Circle.
This endless stream of Everett people wanting to be tested indicates that many local men, women, and children, and people of all ages are either feeling symptoms and want to know that they are sick or are paranoid and want to find out that they are not sick.
In the present situation, the virus is spreading unabated across the nation. As many as 180,000 people a day are being reported ill with the virus, with many of that number feeling horrible, or being hospitalized and in many hundreds of cases across the nation, being placed on ventilators.
In the worst cases, about 1,000 – 1,400 people a day are dying.
The virus has taken almost 250,000 Americans since March.
Everett remains a “red” city according to the state Department of Public Health.
Infection rates here are in the top ten worst in the state, despite efforts to restrict the spread of the virus.
Add to this, it is flu season. Many lining up to find out about the virus have flu and must also face the stark reality of catching the virus.
New cases reported in Everett have risen dramatically from last week’s more than 200.
During the period Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the Department of Public Health reported approximately 40 new cases a day.
The week’s total will come in at 250-280 new cases of the virus in Everett.
The significance of this upward trajectory in virus spread kickstarts the state’s stringent efforts to stay in control of the virus.
It causes more restrictions, more business difficulties, and more economic suffering of all kinds.
Two major drug companies announced this week that their vaccines were 90% and 94% effective according to the results of extensive clinical trials.
Pfizer and Moderna, two of the nation’s leading research drug companies, claim their vaccine will be available at the beginning of the new year.
By that time, as many as 350,000 or more Americans will have died from the virus.