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MA Cities Say State Is Heading in Wrong Direction on COVID

"Unfortunately, I feel that the data and the statistics speak for themselves. It's not heading where we want it to go. It's heading in the wrong direction," Sullivan, the mayor of Brockton, said.

Two people getting swabbed for COVID-19 tests from inside their vehicle.
TNS
 Oct. 25—Robert Sullivan knew the coronavirus would surge again as colder weather forced people indoors. So did Brian Arrigo. So did Thomas Ambrosino.

 But as daily case counts topped 900 in the state and then climbed above 1,100 for the first time since the spring and more and more communities join Brockton, Revere and Chelsea in the high-risk "red zone" for coronavirus transmission, leaders of the cities that have for so long borne the brunt of the pandemic in the Bay State say Massachusetts is moving "in the wrong direction."
 
"Unfortunately, I feel that the data and the statistics speak for themselves. It's not heading where we want it to go. It's heading in the wrong direction," Sullivan, the mayor of Brockton, said. "So we really have to work in a much more diligent and vigilant matter."
 
As the number of high-risk cities and towns swelled to a new high of 77 this week, Sullivan, Arrigo, the mayor in Revere, and Ambrosino, the city manager in Chelsea, shared tips for stemming the spread gleaned from months of battling on the front lines of the pandemic.
 
Brockton, which once trailed only Chelsea in cumulative case counts, managed to stay off the high-risk list from late August to late September even as the state's three largest cities ticked into the red.
 
Sullivan attributed that success in part to a nightly curfew and law enforcement crackdown on parties and other large gatherings, as well as closures of certain playgrounds to discourage people from congregating.
 
He holds regular calls with city and school leaders, local clergy and community activists to work on messaging, opened up a testing site and mailed out 36,000 fliers in multiple languages detailing public health best practices. And he hired a local former emergency department chief to serve as the city's pandemic consultant.
 
"It is definitely a daunting task, and it becomes frustrating at times," Sullivan said. "But we have to, and can, control our own destiny."
 
In Revere, which saw its positivity rate drop under 4% in recent weeks after being at more than 6% over the summer, Arrigo said the city's awareness campaigns — including multilingual field teams and a video series featuring survivors of COVID-19 detailing the harrows of the disease — are now being used by the state as models for community messaging.
 
"Everybody is sick of hearing about COVID," Arrigo said, so "finding new ways and the right ways to communicate with residents is really crucial."
 
Arrigo said openness and honesty about the state of the coronavirus in a community is also key.
 
"There can be a little bit of stigma attached" to being a red community, Arrigo said. "But what we've found is transparency with data, making sure that people know that we are being truthful and up front and honest with the findings from contact tracing and what the data is showing us, and even where our money is going in terms of our response, is really important."
 
City leaders are also stressing the importance of testing, particularly with "35% to 40% of cases being asymptomatic," said Ambrosino, the Chelsea city manager. "You have to assume that people around you are probably infected and don't even know it."
 
With several communities in the red reporting cases coming more from small household gatherings than businesses, Ambrosino urged folks to "try to limit your interaction with large groups of people," even as he acknowledged the difficulty.
 
"Who's looking forward to staying in the whole winter? No one," Ambrosino said. "But we've got to ask them to do the best they can."
 
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