Coronavirus Up In Framingham As Officials Answer To City Council

FRAMINGHAM, MA — With 22 new coronavirus cases reported by Framingham on Wednesday, the city has added more than 120 new cases since Sept. 1 — nearly as many cases as were reported in the entire month of August.

The alarming rise in cases — and the state labeling Framingham one of a few "high-risk" communities in the state — led to a tense discussion at Tuesday's City Council meeting with Mayor Yvonne Spicer and Health Director Dr. Samuel Wong.

The Council peppered Spicer and Wong with questions about everything from where cases are rising most to the city's new push to use $500 fines to punish illicit social gatherings — and whether the city's response had gone off the tracks.

"I refuse to say we are failing," Spicer told the Council during one particularly tense exchange.

The city's contact tracing efforts were one point of contention. Wong began the meeting by referring to social media reports of failed tracing efforts as "fake news." Wong said contact information for people who test positive comes back faulty in 1 to 2 percent of cases, which means city nurses can't reach them to begin tracing efforts.

In cases where contact information is missing, Framingham nurses will go into "detective mode" to track someone down. Faulty information can hamper tracing efforts, he said. Residents who don't hear from the city within 24 hours of a positive test should contact the health department at 508-532-5470.

Councilors wondered why the city isn't using the state's contact tracing operation. Framingham is capable of conducting its own tracing, he said, and the state system is not set up with the Department of Public Health's MAVEN epidemiological system — the main database for tracking COVID-19 in the state.

"We have a very professional core of public health nurses," Wong said. "We're able to handle the case load."

This week, Framingham announced $500 fines aimed at large social gatherings. At-large Councilor Janet Leombruno wondered why the fines were targeted property owners if, in the case of a multifamily building, tenants were causing the problem.

Spicer and Wong clarified that police in most cases will issue a fine to the person hosting a party, including in apartments. But if a gathering is held in a common space, like a parking lot or picnic area, the property owner could still be liable.

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Gatherings are of particular concern because they are thought to be the root of Framingham's recent case spike. Over the weekend, state Department of Public Health workers fanned out across the city to distribute literature in multiple languages about stopping the spread of coronavirus. The city has also been conducting outreach since the pandemic began, Spicer said.

Coronavirus cases have also shifted younger in Framingham, with a majority of the new cases in people under age 40, Wong said. In the spring, the pandemic was hitting elderly people hardest. People who live in apartment buildings also make up a majority of new cases detected over the last 14 days. The first language of people testing positive has been split evenly between English, Spanish and Portuguese.

District 1 Councilor Christine Long wondered why the city wasn't releasing data on where in the city cases are rising most. Wong said that's so people who live outside hot spots don't develop a false sense of security.

"The COVID-19 risk is related to behavior, not geography," he said.