Mayor Donna D. Holaday
March 18, 2021
COVID-19 UPDATE
Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining in on this latest COVID-19 update. Last week, the state launched a new preregistration system for mass vaccination sites, making it easier to request and book an appointment at a nearby location when they become available. The system replaces the current booking platforms for mass vaccination sites for online booking. This tool is available at www.mass.gov/COVIDvaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine scheduling resource line at 2-1-1 is also available to help residents with on-line booking or who are without internet capability. The new process has been very successful with over 400,000 Massachusetts residents pre-registering so far.
Yesterday, Governor Baker announced the vaccine eligibility dates for all remaining Massachusetts residents and certain worker groups. The timeline is as follows: on March 22nd Residents 60 and over and certain workers are eligible, such as our grocery workers, then on April 5th all residents 55 and over and those residents with one medical condition, and lastly, all residents age 16 and older will be eligible beginning on April 19th! More than a year into the pandemic, every adult in Massachusetts now has a designated date when they become eligible to receive a vaccine. Though the state has cautiously unveiled this timeline, the April 19th target to open up the process to all adults marks a significant milestone. This is fantastic news; however, we also know that depending on vaccine supply, it could take weeks for people to be notified that appointments will be available. The state has received guidance from the federal government that an increased vaccine supply will be available to states soon, and are depending on this assurance.
In the meantime, yesterday Massachusetts crossed the point of one million residents being full vaccinated against the virus. And, our public health metrics have continued a relatively flat trajectory in recent weeks. In Newburyport, we remain a green risk low-risk community based on our confirmed case numbers as we continue to see an overall reduction in cases. However in the past two weeks there have been 26 new cases reminding us that this virus is still very much with us. My thanks to everyone in our community for helping to reduce our numbers but we must keep each other safe by wearing masks and social distancing.
As you may know, we’ve launched The Lower Merrimack Valley Regional Collaborative (LMVRC) Vaccination Clinics. This partnership between Newburyport, Amesbury, Georgetown, Groveland, Merrimac, Newbury, Rowley, Salisbury and West Newbury allows us to hold vaccination clinics in this region. The current plan is to run clinics on the weekends, Saturday and Sunday at Amesbury High School, though we are planning for additional sites and will announce them as more vaccines become available and the clinics continue. Last weekend’s COVID -19 clinic was a huge success, with 2,400 people receiving a first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine. More than 2000 hours of volunteer labor went into the Saturday and Sunday clinic sessions at Amesbury High School showing the strength of purpose when cities and towns come together we can accomplish great things.
I can’t begin to thank all of our neighboring Health Directors, their staff and our Emergency Management Directors/Fire Chiefs for the countless hours they are devoting to these vaccination clinics.
Additionally, these clinics are also open to all Massachusetts residents, but as a regional collaborative, we are able to reserve 25% of doses for the residents of the Lower Merrimack Valley Regional Collaborative communities. With this capability, we were able to reserve the next two Saturday clinics for our educators in Kindergarten through Grade 12, and child care workers. We are confident we can vaccinate everyone in this category. And, with supply of the vaccine still extremely limited, some of the future clinics in April may be dedicated for second dose only vaccines. This Sunday’s upcoming clinic also filled up quickly. We hope to see this ease as more supply of the vaccine is available and allocated. We post all appointment links for the regional clinics on our home page at cityofnewburyport.com and our health department’s page. It is important to check our city website often, and the state’s vaxfinder.mass.gov site.
The reopening of our schools is on schedule beginning with the highest need students and Bresnahan elementary school adding more grades and students through April 26th. Please check your child’s school website for more details. We are so pleased to see our school’s re-opening as we know the importance of in classroom learning to the social, emotional and intellectual health of our children. With our teachers getting vaccinated at the local level, the continued weekly pooled surveillance testing, and our positive trends in managing the virus, the schools are in a good position to transition to more in-person learning. State regulations are allowing for more students on buses, and an updated 3-foot social distancing rule with masks has been approved for in classroom with 6 –foot distancing continuing for meals. Our protocols of masks, air quality monitoring, social distancing, contact tracing, and cohort groupings has proven successful, and support the continued increase of in-person learning.
The state will advance to Step 1 of Phase 4 beginning next Monday on March 22nd. Indoor and outdoor venues will be allowed to have a 12% capacity permitted. Gathering limits at event and public settings will be able to have 100 people at indoor gatherings and 150 people at outdoor gatherings. In private settings, including private homes, limits will be set to 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors. The biggest change is that there no longer will be any capacity limits on our restaurants, however social distancing of tables and 90-minute time limits remain in effect. With this, I am very pleased to say we are moving forward on enabling our restaurants to apply for outdoor seating and liquor licenses. We will be implementing a parklet program, which will greatly improve the restaurant’s outdoor seating. Parklets are an expansion of the sidewalks onto one or more on-street parking spaces. Restaurants are very anxious to increase their capacity, and to optimize on this opportunity, and the city fully supports this effort.
The state is also replacing the Massachusetts Travel Order originally issued in July 2020 with a Travel Advisory, effective March 22. A significant change is that travelers who are fully vaccinated 14 days or more do not have to quarantine for 10 days upon their arrival if they have been out of the state for 24 hours or more. Please consult and follow the CDC’s guidelines and requirements for travel.
Related to City business, the City recently received a technical assistance grant from the State through the Rapid Recovery Plan Program. The grant will allow us to work towards creating a recovery plan that will help local businesses support a sustainable economic growth strategy post COVID-19 pandemic, levering our local assets within our community. We have also been informed that state and local governments in Massachusetts are set to receive $8.1 billion dollars in federal aid through the American Rescue plan, signed into law by President Joe Biden last week. About $1.3 billion is being allocated for counties to be distributed on a per-capita basis. Since Essex County is one of eight that does not have its own county government, this aid will be distributed directly to communities. Newburyport is estimated to receive approximately $5.4 million dollars. The money will be provided in two blocks, this year and 2022. We will be coordinating with the state on all the different streams of funding which includes support for local communities, K-12 education, small businesses, restaurants, information technology needs and other responsibilities at the local level.
In addition, we still have some funding remaining from our first round of federal stimulus relief through the CARES act and ESSERS when the pandemic hit last year. The money has been tremendously helpful in responding to the extensive needs generated by the pandemic and its economic fallout. In Newburyport, the COVID funding has been used for redesign of offices and classrooms, air purifiers, PPEs, IT and remote programs and more. The next anticipated federal stimulus funding for the city will have broader use over a two year period with funding targeted to the city and specific funding targeted to the schools.
We are now in the midst of our busy budgeting season for the City. My staff and I have been working on the department operating budgets for Fiscal Year 2022 since the beginning of the calendar year. The updated 5 year plan Capital Improvement Plan (2022-2027) will be deliver to the City Council by April 1st, with a plan to submit the Mayor’s final Budget at the council’s May 10th meeting.
We continue our work on Reservation Terrace on Plum Island. The city is moving forward with utilizing GZA, a geotechnical, environmental, ecological, water, and management firm to provide a protection plan using timber pilings with sand filled coir bags surrounding the poles. The system is being used in Sandwich MA and has been effective. We continue to meet with the effected residents, and are working with the state on funding and logistics on this plan.
We also plan to reopen City Hall to the public on Monday, April 5, however please note that public meetings will remain remote for the foreseeable future. City Hall will be staffed to answer any of your questions during our regular hours of operation. We will also continue to schedule appointments in some departments. I would also like to encourage everyone that can to continue to conduct much of their business online, by mail, or by phone. If you do need to come to City Hall, all visitors are required to wear a face covering or mask during the entirety of their stay. Visitor quantities may also be restricted on the first floor of City Hall. Please dress appropriately for the weather as some outside waiting time may occur. For offices without walk up windows or to see departments requiring significant time for meeting such as our Planning and Building Departments, please call ahead and make an appointment, as we have set up several meeting spaces for these purposes. And please, do not come to City Hall to conduct your business if you are feeling sick.
In closing, while so much progress is being made, all of this really wraps up to not letting our guard down. We have to continue wearing masks.
We have to continue with our current mitigation measures. We all need to take responsibility, so that we can get our society back, and our children back in school. And we have to continue getting vaccinated as soon as that vaccine is available to us. Just be prudent a bit longer. We are going in the right direction, we’re almost there.
I hope you all stay healthy and well and have a great day. Thank you.