MA City Pushes Vaccine-Or-Test Mandate For All: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Monday, August 9. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Indoor mask mandates are coming back to more Massachusetts cities and towns, with one starting in Belmont on Monday and one proposed to start soon in Salem.
• St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester has begun hiring new nurses to replace striking ones in a further escalation of the months-long labor dispute.
• An Olympic bronze medal winner from Cambridge will run the Falmouth Road Race to raise money for cancer research.
• Some guys have all the luck — including a Braintree man who recently won a state lottery jackpot for the second time.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Monday's Top Story

Salem intends to introduce some of the strictest coronavirus-related mitigation measures in the state over the next two weeks — including an indoor mask mandate for all businesses and a strong push for twice-weekly testing for all public and private unvaccinated employees.

The vaccine guideline would require all city or school employees who remain unvaccinated to undergo twice-weekly testing. The city said in a statement it will also encourage all private businesses — especially those whose employees interact with the public — to institute similar requirements for either a coronavirus vaccination or a twice-weekly virus test.

Also on Patch: Belmont Issues Emergency Indoor Mask Mandate

The measures — which the city is calling the "Keep Salem Safe, Open, and Strong campaign" —are set to go into effect on Aug. 23 and are likely to last through the Halloween season, pending Board of Health approval Tuesday night.

Read the full story.

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Monday's Other Top Stories

Worcester hospital moves to replace striking nurses: St. Vincent Hospital on Sunday said it has hired 100 people to replace nurses out on strike, and will begin the process of replacing many more this week. About two-thirds of St. Vincent's 800 nurses went on strike in March. The hospital hired temporary nurses to replace them, but in May, leaders announced they would begin hiring permanent replacements.

Cambridge Olympian to run Falmouth Road Race: Molly Seidel ran for her country, and now she's running to help kids fighting cancer. On the heels of her bronze medal-winning performance in Tokyo, U.S. Olympic marathon runner Seidel — who is from Cambridge — will travel to Cape Cod to run the Falmouth Road Race.

Downed wire cause quite a mess in Brookline: Drivers in Brookline were told to avoid Heath Street between Hammond and Warren streets, as well as Randolph Road Monday morning, after witnesses said a moving truck pulled down wires and multiple utility poles.

Eat fresh: Patch's 2021 Massachusetts Farmers Market Guide

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They Said It

"When employers violate the Fair Labor Standards Act willfully, they not only cheat their employees, they place law-abiding businesses at a competitive disadvantage."

• Wage and Hour Division District Director Carlos Matos on the $310,000 in back wages and liquidated damages three Canton businesses and their former president were ordered to pay 19 employees who were denied overtime despite working the hours.