Coronavirus – Everett Leader Herald

On Zoom call from hotel room

By JOSH RESNEK

The mayor has missed many meetings of the School Committee in the past several months, an indication to voters how sincere he is about becoming a voting member of the School Committee.

However, the mayor showed himself to be a full-out sneak attending last Monday’s ZOOM School Committee meeting from his hotel room inside the Ritz Carlton on the beach side of the island in Aruba while at the same time pretending to be in Everett.

He did not mention where he was. He acted as though he was in Everett.

More vaccine due soon as Covid-19 cases worsening

A Pfizer technician prepares vials for the firm’s Covid-19 vaccine at the NY facility. (Photo courtesy of Pfizer)

Mayor blames residents for virus spread

By JOSH RESNEK

Everett counted nearly 700 new cases of the COVID-19 virus during the past seven days.

The week began with elevated numbers of new infections in this city and among all our neighboring cities and towns.

The mayor has placed the blame for the spread of the virus on residents.

He claims the virus is being spread from apartment to apartment and from home to home by families failing to adhere to pleas for social distancing and face masks.

Massachusetts reported more than 5,500 new cases last week and 77 deaths.

State infections numbers rose to about 40,000 new cases in the past seven days.

At the former Whidden Hospital now owned and run by the Cambridge Health Alliance here in Everett, beds are hard to find.

The hospital is crowded and busy.

“The hospital is packed. It is not entirely filled with COVID-19 patients. A lot of people are sick,” said an employee of the hospital who wished to remain unnamed.

Encore suffered terribly in 2020

The Encore Boston Harbor and the smoke stacks from the Exelon facility. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

Reports of resort for sale continue despite denials

By JOSH RESNEK

Encore executives won’t say it publicly, but it is a good bet that they are not too sorry to send off the old year and to welcome 2021.

The virus. The shutdown of the hotel. The restrictions on gaming. The disastrous reduction in hours the casino can be open. The fights, overdoses, knifings, and shootings didn’t help either.

All in all, 2020 is the year of the headache and when Encore’s wallet shrank just a bit.

Rumors of a possible sale or attempted sale coming at the end of 2020 forced company officials to deny the rumors.

Such rumors have occurred repeatedly, and especially in the weeks just before Encore opened in June 2019, when MGM was reported in the Boston Globe to be negotiating the purchase of the Everett property.

City 13th most infected on ‘Red’ list

Keeping Everett safe by wearing masks and social distancing is urged. (File photo by Jim Mahoney)

Rate high and growing, Chelsea, Revere worse

By JOSH RESNEK

Another 420 cases of the COVID-19 virus have been reported in Everett during the past seven days according to the State Department of Public Health.

Everett is listed 13th by the DPH on its “red” list of 150 cities and towns that are hot and brimming with the virus as the new week dawned upon the city.

The state has placed increased restrictions on gatherings and is emphasizing, again and again, the volatility of this virus and the need to socially distance, stay away from larger groups, and to wear facemasks, and to wash hands repeatedly if you want to stay virus-free.

State figures revealed that 4,968 new cases of the virus were reported last week.

Forty-seven new confirmed deaths were also added to the toll in Massachusetts.

Vaccine has arrived in MA

Medical staff, elderly first to get shots, early spring for the general population

By JOSH RESNEK

The first truck and airplane load of vaccine have been shipped as of early this week.

On Wednesday, most hospitals throughout the nation were expecting deliveries of the vaccine.

The first round of doses exceeding 1 million or so will be distributed to hospitals, to doctors and nurses and hospital staff and to old age home employees as well as to first responders.

It is not known exactly when the vaccines will be made available to Cambridge Health Alliance Hospital employees (CHA) (formerly the Whidden) and to senior citizens living in local old age homes but that prospect is believed to be sometime this week for hospital employees and next week for the elderly shut inside nursing homes, according to the spokesperson for the CHA.

Federal officials have been telling the nation that the vaccine doses in the many millions will be made available to Americans by March or with some luck, by the end of February.

However, the vaccines arriving against a backdrop of the virus reaching true epidemic proportions in the United States, makes it unlikely that the early dosing of the vaccines for doctors and nurse, et cetera, will do much to tamp down the effects of the runaway virus.

Another difficulty is that about 50% of Americans polled say they will not take the vaccine for an abundance of reasons, which will defeat the true power of vaccination to wipe out the virus in the years to come.