New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Officials distribute 8,000 masks
NEW HAVEN — Mayor Justin Elicker and city officials handed out masks at schools in Fair Haven Wednesday, hoping to help safeguard residents amid an uptick of cases in the neighborhood.
At the Columbus Family Academy, Elicker and Emergency Management Director Rick Fontana said that Fair Haven had seen an increase in cases in recent weeks, prompting the plan to hand out masks and safety information with lunches at
“It can stop the spread and save lives. That’s really the message here.”
New Haven Emergency Management Director Rick Fontana
the school Wednesday.
“It can stop the spread and save lives,” said Fontana. “That’s really the message here.”
Elicker said that while he hoped residents would not gather with people from outside their households for Christmas, he believed some likely would.
It’s important that those people wear masks and get together outside, allowing them to socially distance in the open air, he said. The hope of Wednesday’s distribution, in part, was to spread resources in the community, allowing more people to be safe officials said.
Fair Haven had been a hot spot for cases in the community throughout the pandemic, he said. Officials, who had the John S. Martinez School, Fair Haven School and Clinton Avenue School on their itinerary, planned to distribute more than 8,000 masks in the process.
The uptick in Fair Haven comes as the city prepared to receive 1,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine Wednesday, which will be distributed to emergency medical responders in the coming days, Elicker noted.
“I’m tired. I think we’re all tired,” said Elicker, reflecting on this stage in the pandemic. “But I’m hopeful.”
The city has seen no evidence of a new, potentially more contagious strain of the coronavirus that is concerning officials in Britain, Elicker said.
Officials are monitoring the possibility and have had some preliminary conversations on how to respond, he said.