Mitchell announces COVID-19 clusters at nursing home and church

Sep. 4--NEW BEDFORD -- Mayor Jon Mitchell has taken to social media to announce two outbreaks of COVID-19 at a church and a nursing home in the city that each affected at least 10 people.

In a video posted to his Facebook page, the mayor said he was reaching out because after averaging four or five cases a day and having stable positive test rates between 2.0% to 2.5%. "We've seen something different. We've seen a couple of isolated clusters that really illustrate why it's important to social distance and to wear masks."

One cluster is at a nursing home that hadn't had any infections previously, according to Mitchell, and all of a sudden had 10.

Public Information Officer Jonathan Carvalho identified the nursing home as the Savoy Nursing & Rehabilitation Center on County Street.

The cause of the outbreak, Mitchell said, was one staff member who hadn't been tested.

It's unclear how much social distancing and mask wearing the staff member was doing, according to Mitchell, but "that person infected a lot of others."

"The resident and staff members are in quarantine at home, in the hospital or at Savoy Nursing and Rehab Center," said Savoy Nursing & Rehabilitation Center Administrator Didie Watsop. "We have notified public health officials as required and are following procedures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention."

Watsop said the facility is taking every step recommended by authorities to contain the spread and wants to reassure everyone they are on top of the situation and its focus is on ensuring the safety and well-being of its residents and staff members.

Updates on the situation will be available on social media, according to Watsop.

A post on Savoy's Facebook page from Aug. 27 announced the facility learned that two of its staff members tested positive for COVID-19 and they were quarantining at home.

The other cluster was at a small independent church in the North End, Mitchell said, where someone from out of state had not quarantined and infected "a whole bunch of people, at least 10."

Carvalho identified the church as Iglesia Pentecostal Levantate y Anda on Acushnet Avenue.

Pastor Jose Martinez said the church had a special service for youth on Aug. 22 to encourage them and bring them the word of God, then around Aug. 26 people who attended the service started to feel sick.

Martinez said of the around 40 people that attended the service, half or more experienced COVID-19 symptoms, himself included.

He said he's experienced a few coughs here and there, felt weak, and had body aches, but nothing major.

To his knowledge, none of his congregation have had to be hospitalized and some are experiencing flu-like symptoms.

"We keep on with our faith. We're strong, we've been praying, I've been doing a chat with them. It's my way of communicating with them," Martinez said.

Martinez said they chose to close the church on Aug. 28 out of precaution and a sense of responsibility.

It has remained closed since then, and Martinez said they will sanitize the facility before reopening.

The outbreak "really caught us all off guard; we were all surprised," Martinez said.

As long as gatherings of 10 people or fewer have been allowed during the pandemic, the church has been holding appropriately attended services, Martinez said, where all COVID-19 safety protocols have been followed, including social distancing and mask wearing.

Currently, the state allows 50% of a building's maximum permitted occupancy.

The service on Aug. 22 was no different, Martinez said. Everyone was wearing masks and trying to keep distant from each other.

The only difference was that someone in attendance had gone out of state and forgotten to quarantine before coming to the service, according to Martinez.

"Everything was going fine," Martinez said of the services they'd been holding, "It hit us surprisingly and shockingly."

Now everyone who attended the service is quarantining, according to Martinez, and those who are sick are recovering.

The city is working to track everyone to make sure that they and others they've come into contact with are isolating, according to Mitchell.

The mayor said he brought up the clusters because it explains why the city's COVID-19 numbers are about to go up and it illustrates just how easy it is for the disease to spread.

In the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) Weekly COVID-19 Public Health report the city's daily incidence rate per 100,000 did increase from 4.3 last week to 5.4 this week, with the positive test rate also increasing from 2.03% to 2.80%.

The city remains at moderate risk for community spread, according to DPH.

Mitchell said the outbreaks are "Yet another reminder why we need to maintain social distancing, why we need to wear a mask, and why we need to follow the travel rules."

"That's how we're going to stay safe in the long run," he said.

Both facilities that have outbreaks are working with city public health officials to implement additional precautions and to be comprehensive in contact tracing efforts, according to Carvalho.

The city experienced another outbreak recently at the New Bedford District Court. In mid-August the courthouse closed for over a week after 11 employees tested positive for the disease.

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