Somerville crawl
City delays Phase 3 reopening until Aug. 3 at earliest
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone is delaying the city’s Phase 3 reopening until August, citing concerns about rising case numbers while slamming the state for cutting back on contact tracing and not doing enough to enforce mask wearing.
“We do this out of an abundance of caution. We understand, we are acutely aware that this is hard on businesses, that it’s hard on them financially. And we are very aware, I’m aware, that some may not open up again,” Curtatone said in a press conference Friday. “But there’s no one-to-one trade-off between a dollar and someone’s life.”
Curtatone said the first step of Phase 3 reopening in Somerville — which includes gyms, movie theaters, cultural centers and other large indoor venues — won’t start until Aug. 3 at the earliest.
It’s now the third time the city has delayed the next phase of reopening over public health concerns. The rest of the state moved into Phase 3 on July 6, with Boston following a week later.
“In the metro region case numbers are ticking up slightly and in Somerville over the last week alone we’ve seen 15 new positive cases, whereas the prior few weeks we were around five,” Curtatone said. “We need to make sure that’s not a trend.”
Curtatone slammed the state for cutting back on contact tracing when cases are creeping up but testing is slowing down because supplies are being “diverted to other states around the country that are going through the worst right now.”
A day after Gov. Charlie Baker stressed the importance of mask wearing, Curtatone called on the state to do a better job enforcing its order requiring face coverings in public, citing an “erosion” in compliance.
“We need a state-led coordinated strategy,” Curtatone said. “We’re not anywhere near where we should be in testing, and even on masks. I go around and drive around the commonwealth and New England and it’s unbelievable, you go one to two towns over and you’ll struggle to find anyone with a face covering.”
As he pumped the brakes again in Somerville, Curtatone blasted the state for “rushing some things in Phase 3.”
“We paid a disruption in our lives, in our kids’ education,” Curtatone said. “We didn’t do that to rush open activities like casinos and other activities that pose a higher risk of transmission when our focus is what do we do to make sure if possible, if we can do it in a safe way, we can open up schools and get those families back to work and truly bolster our economy.”