Board of Aldermen 11-10-2020 Page 3
Alderman Harriott-Gathright
| am present, | can hear everyone and | am in this room alone.
President Wilshire
| am here, | am alone and | can hear everyone.
Susan Lovering, City Clerk
You have 15 in attendance.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Also with us this evening is Mayor James Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steve Bolton. Mayor,
do you wish to address the Board this evening?
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
Yes, Madam President, | do. The COVID-19 epidemic, the rise in cases that we have seen in recent weeks; of
course Public Health has been, for months, working very hard to contain the spread of the virus. We have a
mask ordinance and the City and our community has been working together to try to protect as many of our
community members as possible. But the scientists and the medical experts told us and have been telling us
for quite some time, that in the fall, and as the weather became colder, that we should see a rise in the number
of cases. And, of course, they are basing this upon their experience with other Coronaviruses related to, but not
the same obviously as COVID-19.
The scientists, the science was right, as was predicted, across the country, especially across the country, more
than here in New England, but across the country in many places, in the mid-west, in the south, the number of
cases has climbed very dramatically. In various places, hospitals are virtually overwhelmed. Here in New
England, in New Hampshire, we have also seen a rise in the number of cases, but not to the degree that other
parts of the country have seen, but still something that we need to be concerned about.
| believe the Director of Public Health and Community Services; Bobbie Bagley is on the call. If you have any
questions or need any further information beyond what | give you, but right now, we have in Nashua 150 active
cases. Now you might recall that in the summer months, that number was down to 20 or 25 at various times,
but now it’s up to 150. And that spans all ages, young people, middle aged, older people. The number of
contacts that have been identified, people who were in contact with those 150 positive patients in the days
before they were diagnosed, 263 contacts. That’s a lot of contacts. You might recall that we were down in
much, much lower than that during the summer and early fall, during the better weather.
Now, of course, as you know, it’s very important in containing the spread of the virus that our Public Health
Department do contact tracing; meaning they talk with each of the 263 people, keep in touch with them, advise
them that they need to quarantine and take other protective measures to make sure that they — or to try to limit
the chances that they would spread the virus to yet someone else. Public Health has been doing a very good
job in keeping up with this. They’ve also been holding testing clinics on a periodic basis, weekly basis; there
was one today. Over 100 people were tested today in the Elm Street garage, this afternoon.
