Town has reported all 41 deaths are nursing home residents
By Jennifer L. Grybowski, Contributing Writer
Westborough – The Board of Selectmen (BOS) and Board of Health (BOH) met jointly again Tuesday night to discuss COVID-19-related issues.
Director of Public Health Steven Baccari started off the meeting by reporting there had been 35 new cases of COVID-19 in Westborough since Friday, with 12 deaths, bringing the total to 41 deaths and well over 200 cases. He confirmed that all the deaths were of nursing home residents.
Members of both boards impressed upon residents the need to stay vigilant with precautions.
“In talking with people around town, there are a lot of people that are sick and tired of being cooped up, and I wanted to express to them from the BOH that we think that this is still a serious situation,” BOH member Dr. Nathan P. Walsh said. “If anything, this situation is still continuing to get worse. We should not be relaxing restrictions…I want to urge our residents that we need to be taking this seriously.”
Selectman and BOH Member Dr. Syed Hashmi said he had been getting similarly frustrated e-mails from residents, but pointed to a report from FEMA predicting an exponential rise in cases and deaths.
“I get it, I fully understand it,” he said. “But you have to realize the spread is still going on….I recognize it’s frustrating, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Board of Health Chair Dr. Alan M. Ehrlich pointed out that the impact of COVID-19 is different in different parts of the country, but that people should focus on the local community when making decisions about precautions
“Just because you see perhaps other states opening up…it’s still a problem here in Massachusetts,” he said. “If anything we are one of the towns being more challenged on a per capita basis.”
