The New Bedford Mayor’s office confirmed that one New Bedford firefighter has tested positive for COVID-19 and 22 firefighters have been quarantined.

New Bedford Guide received the following tip:

“A firefighter has been traveling out of state on vacations and did not quarantine on return. Returned to work and then tested positive exposing more than half the firefighters working. They were all sent home from different stations today.”

Jonathan Carvalho, the Deputy Chief of Staff & Public Information Officer for the City of New Bedford confirmed that one firefighter so far has tested positive for COVID-19 and the firefighter was in contact with several four-firefighter crews during training. As a precaution, over a dozen firefighters have been quarantined until they test negative. Carvalho also stated that the firefighters were transitioning to a five-day off period and would only return if they test negative.

The New Bedford Mayor’s office confirmed that one New Bedford firefighter has tested positive for COVID-19 and over a dozen firefighters have been quarantined.

New Bedford Guide received the following tip:

“A firefighter has been traveling out of state on vacations and did not quarantine on return. Returned to work and then tested positive exposing more than half the firefighters working. They were all sent home from different stations today.”

Jonathan Carvalho, the Deputy Chief of Staff & Public Information Officer for the City of New Bedford confirmed that one firefighter so far has tested positive for COVID-19 and the firefighter was in contact with several four-firefighter crews during training. As a precaution, over a dozen firefighters have been quarantined until they test negative. Carvalho also stated that the firefighters were transitioning to a five-day off period and would only return if they test negative.

Chris Lisinski
State House News Service

A federal judge allowed the state’s temporary ban on evictions and foreclosures to remain in place, a decision outlined in a Thursday ruling that prompted parties on both sides of the issue to see positives.

Judge Mark Wolf told attorneys Thursday that he will not intervene to lift the ban, according to both the lawyer representing plaintiffs and a state lawmaker who co-authored the original moratorium. Wolf plans to explain his decision in detail in a forthcoming written opinion, according to the online court docket.

Gov. Charlie Baker signed a moratorium in April blocking most evictions and foreclosures for several months, aiming to avoid housing disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. He later extended its expiration to Oct. 17. Three landlords sued the state, alleging the ban breaches the Constitution’s contracts clause and prevents them from exercising free speech, petitioning the judiciary, and acquiring compensation for unlawful land taking.

“While we are currently awaiting the written ruling, my understanding is that today Judge Wolf indicated he would be denying every challenge that was made by the landlords against the eviction moratorium statute itself,” said Rep. Mike Connolly, who co-authored the legislation. “I think this affirms the principle that we as legislators are protecting the public health when we act to ensure housing stability during a pandemic.”

Richard Vetstein, who represented the landlords, wrote on Twitter Thursday that while the judge did not lift the ban on filing new eviction cases or issuing notices to quit, he was “pleased” that Wolf expressed some concerns about its viability going forward.

New Bedford, Massachusetts– The New Bedford Health Department has issued fines to Iglesia Pentecostal Levantate y Anda totaling $1,800 after an isolated outbreak of COVID-19 caused by the independent storefront church’s failure to comply with the City’s COVID-19 regulations and protections for its residents.

According to the New Bedford Mayor’s office, the 1710 Acushnet Avenue church has been fined $1,800 for failure to comply with workplace safety standards under the state’s guidelines for places of worship, exceeding its occupancy limit, failure to notify the Health Department of an employee testing positive for COVID-19, failure to communicate with employees regarding symptomatic employees, and failure to report COVID-19 at the location to the Health Department.

Violation orders were issued Wednesday, September 9, to Jose Martinez, the pastor of the Iglesia Pentecostal Levantate y Anda in the amount of $1,800.

Earlier this year, Mayor Jon Mitchell and the Board of Health announced emergency orders to keep employees safe at their place of work, and to outline reporting requirements of COVID-19 in the workplace. The orders include strong measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in workplaces.

Businesses will be subject to fines for failure to comply with the City’s orders, including failure to protect employees and failure to notify the Health Department of an outbreaks. The orders can be found on New Bedford’s COVID-19 webpage: https://www.newbedford-ma.gov/health-department/covid-19-news-2/.

Governor Charlie Baker announced yesterday that the communities in Massachusetts that are at high risk for COVID-19 jumped from 7 to 13 in just one week. The common theme among most of these cities where the virus is persisting is that they are poorer, smaller cities that have struggled to contain the virus.

“In a handful of cities we’ve been focusing on our efforts with local officials to deal with dangerously high levels of transmission there,” Baker said.

Prior to yesterday’s announcement, the 7 towns and cities listed as high-risk were Chelsea, Everett, Framingham, Lawrence, Lynn, Revere, and Winthrop. New Bedford was elevated to high-risk joining the other new communities added to the list, Chatham, Dedham, Lynnfield, Methuen, and Monson.

High-risk for COVID-19 is classified as having a daily average of eight or more COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the two-week period ending Saturday.

Illustrating that fluidity of these risk evaluations, Gov. Baker added that 47 municipalities have successfully reduced their cases and improved their assessments.

The only positive news to come out of the press conference was that the weekly average positive test rate for the state dropped back to a record low of 0.8%.

Currently, the state records the total number of confirmed and probable cases to 123,143 and the number of fatalities to 9,146.

Massachusetts DPH photo.

By Chris Lisinski
State House News Service

Two Massachusetts men facing years in prison are hoping the state’s highest court will pause their sentences with the COVID-19 pandemic still posing threats six months after it first reached the state.

After mixed rulings in lower courts, Supreme Judicial Court justices heard arguments Wednesday from attorneys representing two convicted men who argued that the unprecedented circumstances warrant keeping them out of custody until the public health crisis subsides.

“Any enclosed congregate environment is not safe during this pandemic. We’ve seen it time and again,” said David Rangaviz, an attorney representing appellant Joseph Elibert. “Most pertinent here, prisons and jails are the sites of 80 percent of the top COVID-19 national hotspots. The risks in prisons are inherent. Of course, steps can be taken to try to mitigate that risk, but it cannot be eliminated.”

Justices considered the two separate cases during one stretch of arguments Wednesday morning, after which they did not indicate when they plan to issue a ruling.

Prisons and jails have been a key area of concern amid the outbreak of the highly infectious coronavirus, with many inmates typically living and interacting in close quarters.

Through Tuesday, 392 Department of Correction inmates had tested positive since the start of the pandemic, the department said Wednesday. Eight died from COVID-related causes, while all others have recovered except for one active case, while 127 DOC staff have cumulatively tested positive.

In county jails, 286 inmates and 200 staff members tested positive through Sept. 2, according to the latest weekly data report required under an April SJC decision. Two inmates in county jails have died as a result of COVID-19.

The scale of the outbreak has slowed in facilities compared to the spring. No deaths have been reported in DOC prisons since May 13, and only two more inmates and eight more staff have tested positive since July 2, according to the department’s data.

The 64-year-old Elibert was convicted in January of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, and he was sentenced to four to six years in prison.

In April, during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts, a trial judge temporarily delayed when Elibert would need to begin that term, writing that his medical history with Type II diabetes “makes him at heightened risk of infection and/or injury or death.”

Elibert was released on home confinement with a GPS monitor, but that stay was revoked on June 30 because no one at the MCI Cedar Junction facility had tested positive in the most recent round. Following an appeal, the state’s highest court will now decide where Elibert goes.

Rangaviz, his attorney, argued Wednesday that Cedar Junction reported a positive case in recent weeks, undermining the lower judge’s own reasoning for ordering Elibert to serve his prison sentence.

“Mr. Elibert’s life is at stake,” Rangaviz said. “There’s no basis to return him to custody in the middle of a pandemic to which he’s highly vulnerable when he complied with the conditions of release.”

Arguing on behalf of the state, Assistant District Attorney Erin Knight said Elibert should not remain out of prison, saying that judges should consider the “leaps and bounds” taken by Cedar Junction to improve health safety in the facility.

“Due to his convictions and sentence, the defendant’s baseline is incarceration,” Knight said.
“The commonwealth’s concession that he, as anybody, would be safer at home is hardly groundbreaking, but the defendant stands convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.”

The other case before the SJC involves Daniel Nash, who was sentenced to serve five to seven years in prison following conviction on two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years old and one count of photographing an unsuspecting nude person.

Similarly, a trial court judge agreed to pause Nash’s sentence in May and released him before an appeals court justice reversed that decision, prompting the SJC to step in and weigh the ultimate outcome.

His attorney, Rosemary Scapicchio, argued that the judge who revoked Nash’s stay considered factors outside of those outlined by the SJC for review, such as whether he had any underlying health conditions that create greater COVID-19 risks.

“Even where a defendant can establish a documented health condition and reported cases at his facility, the courts have morphed the requirements even further, apparently requiring new documented cases within hours of the decision,” Scapicchio wrote in a legal brief.

Jennifer Sprague, an assistant district attorney, told justices that the state’s official position supports the lower court ruling that Elibert should no longer have his sentence delayed.

“If your only grounds for the stay is COVID, then that’s a medical issue that should be dealt with with a request for medical parole,” Sprague said.

Advocacy groups and some elected officials fought in the spring for widespread release of inmates whenever possible to reduce populations in prisons and jails, arguing that social distancing would not be possible at current capacities.

On April 3, the SJC ruled that individuals facing nonviolent criminal charges held on bail ahead of trial could petition for release during the pandemic.

Through last week, 1,808 inmates in county jails were released under the provisions outlined by the court, according to the most recent court-ordered data report. At the DOC level, 30 sentenced inmates have been released since the SJC order along with 204 pre-trial detainees and 35 who received medical parole.

“Due to the ongoing public health emergency, the public gathering at the Acushnet 9/11 Memorial on Friday evening is canceled.

Individuals are welcome to visit the memorial on their own on Friday and any other day. Please observe social distancing.”Acushnet Fire & EMS Department.

By Katie Lannan
State House News Service

Boston has gone a week without a COVID-19 death, marking what Mayor Martin Walsh described on Tuesday as a “very encouraging” span.

Walsh said 25 new cases of the coronavirus logged Tuesday brought the city’s cumulative caseload to 15,967 since the onset of the pandemic, and its death toll has held steady at 754 since last week.

Statewide, there have been 121,214 total test-confirmed cases and 9,141 deaths among people with confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases, according to the Department of Public Health.

In an afternoon press conference outside City Hall, Walsh discussed Boston’s COVID-19 metrics and the dozen shootings that city police responded to over the holiday weekend.

After “a couple of weeks of decline,” the city’s positive test rate stands at 1.7 percent, Walsh said. East Boston continues to have the highest positive rate of any neighborhood in the capital city, at 8.7 percent as of Sept. 1. That number is down from 11.4 percent three weeks ago.

“That’s a good way to see the numbers go,” Walsh said. “We want to continue that downward trajectory, if you will, over in East Boston, with testing.”

Walsh said city officials launched an “elevated outreach plan” three weeks ago, targeting East Boston with efforts like the distribution of kits with cleaning supplies and virus information, partnerships with churches, and messaging for people in multi-generational households about strategies they can use to limit transmission.

12 Shootings in 3 Days

Separately, Walsh and Police Commissioner Willie Gross said Boston city departments and other agencies convened ahead of the Labor Day holiday to plan violence prevention and response efforts. Walsh said some sort of violence “is not unusual for Labor Day weekend” — though he said any act of violence, at any time, is unacceptable — and Gross characterized the weekend as a long one, with 12 unrelated shootings in the city.

“At this time, our investigations reveal that none of the twelve shootings are connected,” Gross said.

Gross thanked residents whose 911 calls helped police make gun arrests or “facilitate investigations.”

“It was a long weekend,” he said. “Instead of being hyper-critical, for some folks, get out there and talk to your constituency, because a lot of the kids that are involved in the shootings or in drag-racing or fireworks are part of your constituency. The police can’t wear all the hats. We need everyone to do their jobs, not point figures.”

Gross said he welcomes an eventual full reopening of the court system, which like many entities had to rethink its operations to accommodate the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We definitely welcome the courts to reopen. There’s the COVID-19 situation that prevents them from doing so, but whether it’s virtually or until that time, we need the courts to be open, because these individuals causing violence in our neighborhoods should be locked up,” Gross said. “That’s why you have twelve shootings within three days. There has to be some accountability.”

Like other parts of the state’s court system, Boston Municipal Court and Suffolk Superior Court are open for in-person proceedings on a limited basis with health and safety protocols in place, with other matters conducted virtually. Jury trials originally scheduled to start between March 14 and Sept. 4 were ordered to be continued to dates no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 8, and no new grand jury could be empaneled before Tuesday unless ordered by the Supreme Judicial Court.

Walsh said that while courts are open, some are operating in modes that are “not as full as they have been.” He said it is important to “send a very strong message that if you do something bad in the city, that you will be brought to court and prosecuted by the appropriate authority.”

By Katie Lannan
State House News Service

With peers who sometimes lack access to masks and hand sanitizer, classrooms that don’t always have windows, and a city whose COVID-19 case rate is the highest in the state, Chelsea High School student Victoria Stutto said she would not feel safe going back to school in-person at all this year.

Chelsea’s schools are starting the academic year with full remote instruction. Stutto, 17, said she hopes to see changes from what she experienced in the spring, when she found learning from home “next to impossible.”

Stutto, speaking on a Zoom call hosted by the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, said her father died about a month after her school and others across the state suddenly transitioned to remote learning as the pandemic took hold.

She said only some of the teachers were understanding of the challenges she faced, and the process as a whole was disorganized.

“I couldn’t focus on any of the lessons, and the dysfunctionality of it all, I just couldn’t balance it with my everyday life,” Stutto said.

Stutto and others who spoke during the virtual press conference illustrated the tension facing many students, teachers, and families across the state as the back-to-school season arrives. While wary about the health implications of a physical return to the classroom, parents and students on the call also outlined concerns with remote schooling, including difficulty connecting with teachers, technology problems and social isolation.

Stutto and another rising senior in Chelsea, Katy Ochoa, said that schools should look at each student’s individual situation and suggested they name a point person kids could reach out to with their personal needs and problems around remote learning.

Araceli Flores, a 16-year-old Everett High School student, said her mom, who has a medical condition, is worried about her risk of contracting COVID-19 if Flores and her younger sister were to go back to school in-person. Flores said she, too, wonders how students would be able to feel safe.

But, Flores said, she felt “like we didn’t learn anything” this past spring, and her sister, a fourth grader, told her “that going to school, she would learn better.”

Gov. Charlie Baker has advocated for schools to resume at least some in-person education in communities where the risk of COVID-19 transmission is low, pointing to the social and emotional needs of students who have been out of the classroom for almost six months and the difficulties inherent with teaching things like reading from a distance.

The administration rolled out a series of safety protocols that districts must adhere to if they do repopulate classrooms, including mask-wearing, social distancing and sanitation measures. The choice to pursue in-person schooling, remote education or a hybrid model fell to individual districts.

Baker announced Thursday that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is launching a public awareness campaign highlighting what steps are being taken to reopen schools safely. A new website aims to answer families’ questions and features a video of doctors discussing the status of COVID-19 in Massachusetts.

“Over the summer, the Department worked with many stakeholders and medical experts to carefully develop detailed guidance to reopen schools safely, and superintendents, teachers and staff worked hard to implement those health and safety requirements,” Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley said in a statement. “We now need to rely on families, students and the other members of the public to do their part to prevent the spread of COVID-19 so that our kids can get back to school.”

In Boston, the city’s schools are starting remotely on Sept. 21. Later in the fall, families will be given the option to have their students gradually return for some in-person instruction, in a hybrid model, if public health metrics hold.

Janina Rackard plans to keep Jay’dha, her 12-year-old daughter, at home. Rackard said she thinks more thought needs to be put into safety precautions and that the coronavirus “is just not contained.”

“I am not going to let my daughter be that subject, that test subject,” she said.

Another Boston parent, Suleika Soto, said she was choosing a hybrid model for her children, ages 9 and 12. She’s still afraid of the unknown and wants clearer communication from the school district, she said, but needs to return to work.

“There is no real child care out there, so school’s my next best option,” she said. “I know this is high risk, but I’m kind of stuck.”

Soto said she’d feel “more secure” about sending her kids back to school if COVID-19 testing were mandatory.

“I know that flu shots are going to be required from what I hear, I know physicals are required, so why not put a COVID test in, as some sort of requirement for going back into the buildings?” she said.

“It’s with an extremely heavy heart that we announce the closure of Busy Bees Play Hive in the Lifestyles Plaza.

We poured our hearts and souls into creating Busy Bees and we are so grateful to our amazing community for making our business a success in such a short time. Unfortunately, although successful, being a brand new business made it hard for us to stay afloat during this pandemic. We spent the past five months hoping things would improve but unfortunately there is no ‘end date’ for this virus and our business will not thrive with these new guidelines.

Many factors have gone into this very difficult decision. At the end of the day, the financial obligation to ‘wait it out’ just isn’t an option for us anymore.

We have made this decision based on what is best for us today and we are hopeful that when this living nightmare is over and things are ‘better’ we can bring Busy Bees back to our community.

Although short, I have enjoyed every moment of this journey. I am so grateful for each and every person who visited and supported us!

Despite the ‘fake news’ and ‘media hype’ it is destroying businesses and the pain is real! My heart hurts for every single person/business struggling right now.

Be Kind- it’s what our world needs.

If you have any questions about memberships, parties, etc. please feel free to reach out to us at BusyBeesplayhive@gmail.com. We do ask for your patience during this time. We will respond as quickly as possible.”-Busy Bees Play Hive.