City Manager Tom Ambrosino said there have been 113 cases of COVID-19 reported in Chelsea as of Tuesday evening, a number he said is likely meaningless due to the quick spread of the virus throughout Chelsea and all communities around it.
Revere had logged the most cases in the area, with 140 confirmed cases by Tuesday evening, with Everett only reporting 29 as of Monday night.
“As I tell everyone, in some sense the number of cases is irrelevant,” he said. “The true number is likely many, many multiples of that. That number is only the number of people who have symptoms and have reported it to a doctor and have been tested. That’s only a small number of people in Chelsea who have done that. We have to assume the virus is everywhere in the city. The good news is most people have mild symptoms and recover quickly.”
Last week, Ambrosino made an impassioned call for people to stay home and practice social distancing, particularly due to the dense living conditions of many homes in the city. So far, he said most people are following that calling.
“I would say compliance with that has been working well,” he said. “If you have 70 to 80 percent compliant, that is good, but even with that it means 20 percent aren’t complying and that’s a lot of people on the streets…The vast majority are taking it seriously. There is a group of people that are not and they have an outsized impact on people’s perceptions. Most people here are heeding the warning.”
Ambrosino said the Public Health Department has been working with Senior Citizen buildings in the community to make sure they have all the proper protocols to prevent an outbreak such as has happened at the Jack Satter House on Revere Beach where up to five people have died in one week.
“These are very vulnerable populations and even with the best efforts, it’s probable people will be infected and there will be some outbreaks,” he said. “We are providing the best support as possible to these buildings. They all seem to have good protocols in place.”
•Volunteers are still needed in the City for a variety of things, he said.
Anyone that wants to volunteer can call 3-1-1 to register, or if that doesn’t work, they can call (617) 466-4209.
“We are just going to try the best that we can do,” he said. “That’s our mantra. We can’t solve everything and be everywhere, but we’ll do the best we can. If we meet 75 percent of the needs, that’s great. If it’s 25 percent, at least we know we did our very best.”
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