My updates relating to COVID-19 for Tuesday, September 15, 2020.
Below are Mayor Walsh’s remarks for Tuesday, September 15, 2020.
These numbers are as of yesterday. We had 235 new confirmed cases in Massachusetts, bringing the total to 123,139 confirmed cases. There were nine new deaths, bringing the total deaths in Massachusetts to 9,010.
Boston’s numbers, also from yesterday, 51 new cases, bringing our total to 16,245. We had two new deaths over the weekend, bringing our total deaths in Boston to 757.
As always, our thoughts and prayers go out to the individuals and the families that are suffering with COVID-19 and those of you who lost loved ones to this horrible virus.
Our trends for the week ending September 7: the positive test rate in Boston is 1.6%, that’s down from 1.7% last week. The cumulative total since the very beginning of the pandemic, we’re down to 7.9%. Emergency Room and ICU numbers remain low. In one illustration of how far we’ve come, 90% of the deaths we’ve had in the City of Boston occurred before June 7.
Testing: over 2,700 Boston residents were tested every day on average last week, including college students.
East Boston: as of September 7, our seven-day positive test rate was 6.4%. That’s down slightly from the week before and down from 11.4% three weeks ago. So, a lot of the work that our community outreach and expanded testing response is doing, certainly is having an impact in East Boston, and we’re seeing that number come down. The City’s Mobile Testing Team remains in East Boston through Saturday in Central Square Park. You can also go to the East Boston Health Center to be tested.
Parts of Dorchester and Roxbury, in the zip codes of 02121 and 02125, had a slightly elevated rate to 4.1%. We are monitoring those numbers and our COVID-19 Health Inequities Task Force is discussing responses. It’s not quite at a place that puts a big alarm on it, but we don’t want to see that number any much above that 4.1%, so we’re going to continue to do work.
We’re going to keep bringing resources to the neighborhoods and communities that need them. Testing access, you can find a map and info at boston.gov/coronavirus. That’s anywhere in the City of Boston, if you want to find that. And yesterday, I found in my maps app if you type in “coronavirus testing,” it’ll pop up and tell you where testing is in your neighborhood if you have an iPhone. We also have information in multiple languages. Free food and rental relief to residents. PPE and signage to small businesses. For anything that I just mentioned or any information you’re looking for, you can visit: boston.gov/coronavirus and boston.gov/reopening.
I’m grateful to everyone for playing your part in keeping us all safe.
What we’re doing continues to work, so what I’m asking people to do in every press conference, let’s keep it up. We want to continue to stay six feet away from other people when you’re walking or out in gatherings. We’re asking you to wear a mask when you leave the house. We’re asking people to continue washing your hands as frequently as possible with soap and warm water. We’re asking you again to clean those frequently-touched surfaces, whether it’s door knobs in your home or your place or work or your car.
If you operate a business, we’re asking you to follow the guidelines and make sure your employees and customers can follow them as well. Make sure there’s clear signage in the places of employment or in restaurants, so if people momentarily forget about the world we’re in, it’s right in front of you.
If you’re a college student, we’re asking you to please follow your college’s guidelines. If you live in a large household, with several roommates or multiple generations, be extra cautious. That’s where washing hands, wearing masks and cleaning down surfaces because as people go out and come back in, if they touched a surface that might have the virus, you could bring it into the household.
We’re asking again to please avoid large gatherings. And, if you have been to a party or gathering of any kind, assume you have been exposed to the virus and get tested to protect yourself and your family. This weekend, we got some calls. The police got some 911 calls for large gatherings in different parts of the City of Boston, and I’m asking people, if you could cut back on those. It really is about protecting yourself and protecting your family and protecting others. We’re asking you to stay very vigilant on that.
COVID-19 is still very much with us. That’s why we will continue to put public health first. That’s why we will continue to make equity a priority, helping those who are hardest hit. And that’s how we are moving forward with recovery to safely open our schools and support our children and teachers, to get people back to work and help small businesses, to house the homeless, and to get people with substance use disorders access to treatment that they need. A lot of these programs are open now at full capacity, so we’re trying to encourage people to take advantage of these different programs. We’re also going to keep working to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods throughout the city.
We are working to build back stronger than it was pre-COVID. We are determined to come out of this pandemic a healthier and more equitable city than we entered it.
Our streets and public spaces are great examples. Transportation has been a critical focus of our planning in recent years. The pandemic brought a new urgency for safe and reliable transportation, especially for our frontline and essential workers. So we didn’t put our plans on hold, our offices continue to work, our Transportation Department continues to work every day. Instead, we took the opportunity to make progress.
Early in the summer, we launched Healthy Streets. We installed pop-up bike lanes downtown that connect to neighborhood commuting routes. People saw the orange barrels in many places. We began offering free 90-day passes to Blue Bikes for essential workers. And we took steps to make neighborhood bus routes safer and more reliable.
First, starting this fall we will install new bus lanes on neighborhood corridors where working people rely heavily on MBTA buses. On Columbus Avenue in Roxbury, we’re building bus lanes in the middle of the roadway. They will have boarding platforms for passengers, with safety and accessibility features. Nearly one third of the people who travel on Columbus Avenue, travel on buses. These lanes will make a big difference in reliability and travel time. And it will make the street work better for everyone, including cars and bikes as people go down there.
On North Washington Street in the North End and West End, we’re adding a bus lane that will serve up to 12,000 commuters a day. That includes many essential workers who have been riding buses throughout the pandemic. On Washington Street in Roslindale, we’re going to add an outbound evening bus lane from Forest Hills to Roslindale Square. This route is used by 19,000 daily commuters, and we’ve seen success with the morning lane.
I want to thank the community of Roslindale because quite honestly this is one of the first neighborhoods that we did a pilot program. We did a pilot program over a weekend, we did a pilot program over a month, and the community of Roslindale overwhelmingly asked us to make it permanent. So, I want to thank you for setting the tone and the standard here.
Bus lanes have worked well and proven popular. They get more people safely and efficiently where they need to go. And also they increase equity for our working class and senior residents. I want to thank the MBTA for their partnership on this as well.
The second big step I can announce is that we are making many of our pop-up bike lanes into permanent separated bike lanes this fall. That includes the routes around Boston Common and the Public Garden: Tremont Street, Boylston Street, Charles Street, Beacon Street, and Arlington Street. This is part of our Connect Downtown network, linking our neighborhood routes to downtown jobs. They are great for recreation and tourism as well. In addition to building bike lanes, we’ll adjust traffic signals to increase safety. And we’ll begin redesigning intersections to work better for pedestrians. We’re asking people, as the construction is going on, be patient with us here. But again, this is all about adding opportunities in our city.
We will continue to offer free 90-day Blue Bike passes. It’s a great time to try commuting by bicycle if you haven’t before. This past Sunday, Blue Bikes riders set the all-time daily record, with 14,403 rides. We are proud of the work we’ve done to expand this public bike share network in Boston and our neighboring cities and towns. Many years ago when we started this, it wasn’t in every neighborhood. We have Blue Bikes now in, I think, almost every neighborhood in the City of Boston, and obviously in cities and towns that surround us.
In addition, we are going to keep working with residents on solutions for American Legion Highway from Dorchester to Roslindale, to improve safety. Many complaints have come in on that stretch of road with people racing and drag racing, and we’re going to continue to work to monitor to make that roadway better.
To learn more about anything I spoke about today or any road improvements or bike improvements that we’re going to be doing in the City of Boston, we’re asking you to go boston.gov/HealthyStreets. You can also talk to our transportation planners directly, in both outdoor office hours and virtual office hours.
We’ve made small business recovery a priority.
So far, our Small Business Relief Fund has awarded $6.7 million to nearly 1,700 businesses in need, across every neighborhood of the city. This is money from the City of Boston, this has nothing to do with the State of the federal government. This is all City money. Our Reopen Boston Fund has provided $2.1 million in grants to over 1,200 small businesses for PPE, safety materials, and cleaning supplies. And our Outdoor Dining Program has been a lifeline for restaurants, at a time when indoor seating remains limited for health reasons. We’ve permitted over 550 restaurants for outdoor dining. We continue to make portable mobility ramps available for accessibility. Restaurants permitted for outdoor dining can request a ramp by emailing ADA@boston.gov.
Today, I can announce we are extending the Outdoor Dining Program beyond its original end date of October 31. Restaurants using private outdoor space can continue to do so for the duration of the public health emergency. And restaurants using public space on streets and sidewalks can continue until December 1, when we’ll look at the situation again. Obviously, outdoor dining is weather-dependent here in New England. At some point, snow plows might need to get through.
But, as the temperatures go down, and today is a cool day, we’re going to waive application fees for the use of outdoor propane heaters in dining areas. You still need a permit from the Fire Department, and the safety regulations around their use remain 100% in place, but the fee will be waived. We’re trying to help our restaurants continue to take advantage of outdoor space for as long as possible. You will be able to use electric heaters without a permit, as long as no cords are crossing sidewalks.
The Outdoor Dining Program is a collaboration led by the Licensing Board with several departments along with our small businesses and neighborhood residents and many of our Main Street districts. I want to thank everyone involved, including our restaurant owners for your patience and for what you’re doing for the City of Boston. I know this has been a very difficult time for all of you, but what we’re trying to do now is a true community effort to support you.
My heart goes out to the owners and the staff. In many ways you are the heart and soul of our local economy and the different neighborhoods in the City. We will continue to listen and provide whatever support and flexibility we can to help you recover. We will continue to provide you with the information and the materials you need to keep your staff and customers safe. And we will continue to help your customers find and support our small businesses through online directories. So we’re asking people to go to boston.gov/reopening to see what businesses are open in the City, what you can buy online, what you can get delivered from them. As much as we can help our local businesses, even if it’s just by takeout, it’d be extremely important to all of them. You can learn more about all of our programs, guidelines, and directories of small businesses at boston.gov/reopening.
I want to begin to close with reminders about community conversations we are having on race and justice. Last week, the Police Reform Task Force published its draft recommendations. We are determined to move forward in all the areas they talk about, oversight, diversity, use of force policies, technology, and transparency. We take those steps as a community, so the Task Force needs your input. The recommendations are available in six languages. You can find the recommendations, and they are a draft, at boston.gov/policereform.
The Task force is holding a final community listening session on Tuesday, September 22, at 4:00 p.m. You can submit any written comments until Friday, September 25, before the Task Force finalizes its recommendations.
This is a historic step we are taking as a city. This is another chance for Boston to be a national leader in justice. This is your chance to shape that progress.
I want to take a second to thank the Task Force members, who are made up of organizers and activists and members of the Boston Police Department and all the great work that’s gone into the Task Force. The Task Force report is not finalized yet, so it is important to hear community input and get the input as much as possible, so we’re asking you to do that.
There’s also a separate issue, the U.S. Census. There are 15 days left to respond to the 2020 U.S. Census. The Census count happens every 10 years. It’s how the federal government assigns Congressional representation. And it’s how the federal government assigns funding for programs, both those that exist and those that may be created over the next 10 years. Tomorrow, we are holding a Census Day of Action with special outreach programs with volunteers.
At this point, every day is critical. We are still around a 57% response rate, and we need to get that number up here in the City. Our immigrant communities and communities of color historically get under-counted and therefore we get under-funded.
We got good news last week. A federal court blocked the President’s attempt to remove undocumented immigrants from the count for Congressional representation. We were proud to fight that decision. We believe all our residents deserve representation.
I’m asking people as well, when you think about the Census, think about it this way. This is your money. When you pay your federal taxes, it’s an ability to get your federal taxes spent back here in Massachusetts and the City of Boston. So, if you haven’t filled out your Census, we’re asking you to go to my2020census.gov to fill out the Census, and then there will be people out and there are mailers going out every day as well.
We also got some tough news yesterday. A different court decision allowed the Trump Administration to move forward with a plan to take away Temporary Protected Status from nearly half a million people. TPS holders are here lawfully and would face danger returning to their country of birth. 12,000 residents of Massachusetts have TPS status, including Bostonians who are originally from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Nepal. They have lived here lawfully for years. They have children born here and are American citizens. And they are essential workers who have saved lives and got us through this pandemic.
This is something we’ve been fighting here in City Hall and in the City since 2017. We’ll have more to say about this in days ahead.
Anyone with TPS should know that this would not go into effect until next year. You can call 311 to connect with our Office for Immigrant Advancement for support. We’re asking, if you’re not quite sure what this means, what the ruling meant yesterday, we’re asking you to call 311.
We are in a constant battle with this White House to protect our immigrant communities, respect the contributions they make, and live up to our ideals as a nation, which is really important. The Census count is one way to fight back. We’re asking you again to respond to the Census. Fill out the 2020 Census by going to my2020census.gov or calling 844–330–2020. And ask your neighbors and friends to do the same. Thank you.
