Somerville Mulls Vaccine Mandate For City, School Staff

SOMERVILLE, MA — Officials in Somerville are considering a vaccine requirement for all city and school employees and "strongly recommending" that people wear face coverings indoors as COVID cases rise in Massachusetts and across the country.

"This is about keeping coronavirus on a leash," Mayor Joseph Curtatone said. "The disease is spreading more easily. We still have a substantial number of people, including children, who’ve yet to be vaccinated against this virus. Wearing a face covering when you’re in indoor public settings will help prevent you from picking up this virus and spreading it around."

Officials said those who are vaccinated are "vastly" better protected against infection and severe symptoms, but it is still possible to catch or transmit the virus. Face coverings are required for staff and visitors to city buildings, at the city's summer programs and will likely be mandated at schools this fall.

While Middlesex County does not currently have substantial or high transmission rates of the coronavirus, the Delta variant is significantly more contagious than earlier variants of the virus, officials said. Suffolk County, which neighbors Somerville, and Cape Cod, where many people visit during the summer, do qualify as higher transmission areas where the CDC is urging indoor masking in public spaces.

In Massachusetts, the disease is spreading quickest among those ages 20-39.

"We’re not cutting back at this moment on what people can do, and we’d like to avoid that," Curtatone said. "Just recognize how to do things safely in public settings. There are people of all ages with assorted health conditions for whom this disease poses a real threat, and the simple act of wearing a mask when you’re inside a public space can help prevent this disease from spreading to them. If case numbers keep trending in the wrong direction, we will consider an indoor mask mandate to keep our community safe."

Health officials also underscored the importance of getting vaccinated. The city is working with departments and unions to review adding a vaccine mandate as a basic protocol for maintaining a safe and healthy work environment in cities and schools.

"The vaccines are proving to be highly effective in preventing serious cases of COVID-19, even with the variants," Health and Human Services Director Doug Kress said. "That is why it is vital for everyone to get their vaccine. There are still tens of thousands of people locally and more than 150 million people nationally who do not have this protection, just as a highly contagious variant threatens to cause a new round of outbreaks. Until we have the overwhelming majority of our population vaccinated, the potential for this virus to do serious harm will persist."

As of last week, 54,520 Somerville residents (72 percent of the population) were fully vaccinated and 58,790 (78 percent) had received at least one dose.