Dear Community Members,

Here is a COVID-19 update for Thursday, April 9.

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers.)

Dear Editor:

During these challenging times, postal employees are working hard to ensure residents stay connected with their world through the mail. Whether it’s medications, a package, a paycheck, benefits or pension check, a bill or letter from a family member, postal workers understand that every piece of mail is important. While service like this is nothing new to us, we need our communities’ help with social distancing.

Amidst a dire, statewide shortage of critical medical supplies, the region’s largest electrical workers’ union, IBEW Local 103, has donated 20,000 medical-grade protective masks to the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) for direct distribution to front-line caregivers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Residents of Somerville, on behalf of the members of the Somerville Police Department I want to ensure you that we are working tirelessly with our partners in Public Health and across every City Department to do everything we can to ensure your health and safety. I want to thank you for your voluntary compliance regarding social distancing, hand washing and adherence to CDC guidelines. These are difficult times for everyone including public safety. Due to the restrictions of in person resources we want to assist you in connecting with on line resources.

The Battelle Critical Care Contamination System designed to sanitize N95 respirator masks for reuse by medical professionals arrived last week at the now vacant Kmart auto shop space at Assembly Square.

By Jim Clark

Somerville’s Assembly Row will be playing host to a mechanical system that is capable of sterilizing as many as 80,000 respirator masks per day, a tremendous boon to medical facilities engaged in the fight against the current COVID-19 epidemic.

The system’s creators, Columbus, OH, non-profit Battelle has coordinated with the City of Somerville and PartnersHealthCare to set up the system in the now vacant Kmart auto shop area.

An uptick in needy families and individual turning to Project Soup for food assistance is seen due to the effects of the coronavirus crisis.

By Isabel Sami

With the coronavirus closing businesses and putting people out of work, more individuals are losing their main source of income, affecting their financial stability and forcing them to find alternate means. Somerville’s Project SOUP (Share Our United Pantry) provides a free food pantry for residents in need, but the pandemic is impacting their operations as well.

Readers of our print edition will will notice that we are running fewer pages this week. This is due to the fact that so many of our regular features such as Villens on the Town, the Council On Aging listing, Somerville Police arrest reports, etc., are not being produced because of the lack of activity in the city during the coronavirus stay at home advisory. Be assured that we will continue to publish and include the latest and most vital news you need to get, both in print and on our website at www.thesomervilletimes.com, and will return to our usual usual page count as conditions warrant. And remember, we invite everyone to submit their Somerville Sheltering Stories, photos, anecdotes, etc., to news@thesomervilletimes.com. We want to know how everyone is doing while we are all going through this uniquely challenging time.

Project Hope’s Boston Marathon runner Kyle Vernest.

On September 14, 2020, nearly 30,000 runners will run the 124th Boston Marathon®.  The 26.2-mile route extends through Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline and Boston.

Somerville’s Kyle Vernest has been running since high school and continues to do it as a way to spend time with his dog, Ollie. Kyle also ran for Project Hope in 2012. Kyle will be running for Project Hope through an entry provided by John Hancock. Each year John Hancock donates guaranteed entries to selected nonprofits, which use these entries to recruit individual runners to raise money for their cause.

The COVID-19 crisis has certainly put a damper on our ability to enjoy the usual holiday celebrations in normal ways. So it may be over the next week as both religious-minded and secular folks deal with yet another occasion in semi- or total isolation.

Somerville Firefighters Local 76 recently expressed its gratitude to Louis Antonellis and Local 103 IBEW for their generous donation of KN95 masks, so important for firefighter safety in the midst of the current coronavirus crisis.