Cases seem to continue escalating in Chelsea as the City reported more than 1,000 confirmed cases on April 22, with 84 deaths in the city primarily attributed to the large nursing home population in Chelsea – a population that has been decimated at most every facility by COVID-19.
There were 1,054 COVID-19 confirmed patients as of April 22, with all of them supposedly in quarantine. There are 242 that have recovered, but 84 that died of the virus. As has been said repeatedly, the numbers reported are likely just a small portion of what is really out in the community – with some postulating that as many as 30 percent of the population could be infected.
“We are definitely in the middle of the surge right now,” said City Manager Tom Ambrosino. “Our infection rate isn’t going down and is still the highest in the state. We have a really high death rate in Chelsea and it’s drive by the large nursing home population we have – the Soldiers’ Home, Eastpointe, and Chelsea Jewish. They have frail and elderly populations and that is the population this disease attacks. That is really driving our death rate, which is also one of the largest in the state. The nursing homes have been decimated.”
Right now, there has been a great piece of hope in that several medical facilities and the Department of Public Health (DPH) have stepped up to offer testing for anyone with symptoms – and complete testing for those in senior citizen buildings.
He said MGH Chelsea is testing 200 per day, and Beth Israel Chelsea is testing about 100 per day at their testing facilities. Most get results back within 24 hours.
“We’re getting the message out to everyone in the community,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s like in the rest of America, but in the City of Chelsea, if you have symptoms, you can get tested. They’re testing every single person and if you have symptoms, you can got there and now you don’t even need an appointment – even though it’s suggested. We’ve had great cooperation with those two. They’ve really stepped up.”
Ambrosino said he was very grateful for the tremendous amounts of support from Gov. Charlie Baker and the state administration – who have really stepped in to help Chelsea since he and others made the call for help three weeks ago.
Now, he said, it is a battle to keep people who are positive – and their contacts – in quarantine.
“With every COVID-19 positive patient, we have three or four people who are contacts that should be quarantined too,” he said. “In the real world, though, it’s hard to reach those people. Some don’t have phones working or they speak another language other than Spanish. You call them and say they need to stay in and they say, ‘Sure, but I’m an essential worker and have not food and need to go to work.’ There’s the theory on paper and the reality in practice and the two don’t match up well in this crisis.
“Nevertheless, we encourage people and we hope the people we tell to isolate do stay in and we will support them and we will deliver food to their doors,” he continued.