5 years after pandemic declared: Reflecting on COVID-19 in Wellesley
The world is looking back at the coronavirus this week, 5 years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
Our first post about the virus appeared in January 2020 following Wellesley Public Schools issuing a memo about students who had attended a Model UN event where a non-WHS student was being being tested for COVID-19.
The Wellesley Health Department followed in February with a memo about COVID-19 that read in part: “Wellesley Health Department (WHD) is monitoring the recent outbreak of Coronavirus. So far no one in Wellesley has been diagnosed with the virus. As of Saturday, February 1, 2020, there has been one confirmed case of Coronavirus in a Boston man in his 20s. The risk to the public from the Coronavirus remains low in the state, according to a statement released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Boston Public Health Commission…”
Residents soon began working on their own plan regarding COVID-19 protection. The grassroots effort included communications efforts focused on local needs such as assisting fellow residents in quarantined who need food; encouraging people to stay home when symptomatic so as not to spread the virus; help vulnerable people with getting medications, masks, and other similar medical necessities; fundraising to help residents in need and local businesses; and more.
In March of 2020, the schools went into deep cleaning mode, community events started to get canceled, and businesses began reaching out to patrons about the status of their operations in light of the virus emerging.
Local colleges started sending students home due to the newly announced pandemic. At the time, our two kids were in college. Let’s just say they didn’t experience the spring break of their dreams that year. With our students home and our family now avoiding restaurants and takeout, Mrs. Swellesley pulled out the bread maker, the popcorn maker, the ice cream maker, the crockpot, and we all started making all the things, all the time. Three meals a day for four adults. We reminded each other we were lucky to have jobs that kept us in groceries.
We picked up on the catchphrase “with an abundance of caution” that town and other organizations began parroting in their communications about delays, cancelations, and confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The town election got postponed, and schools closed for what was initially thought to be a couple of weeks. The two-time defending state champion Wellesley High School girls’ hockey team was named co-state champs, as the actual game got nixed due to COVID-19. The Boston Marathon got pushed off.
That March proved to be the beginning of the end for full public access to the beautiful trail around Lake Waban, though Wellesley College has since re-opened its portion. The section owned by the Hunnewell family has remained closed ever since, except for rare occasions when the gates are unlocked for the day. Other changes brought about by COVID, such as online government meetings, have remained for better (easier access) or worse (more awkward).
Planned events, like art shows and road races, went virtual in desperate attempts to at least do something. Drive-in movies at the train station parking lot emerged as a safe and fun entertainment alternative.
On St. Patrick’s Day of 2020, Mrs. Swellesley became the last civilian allowed to enter Town Hall before it closed for a good long while. She tried not to let the door hit her on the ass on the way out. She never did get used to her new status as “Unauthorized Personnel.”
The town issued a sobering warning: ““Strict restrictions are currently in place, with more to come.”
Meanwhile, efforts to support local restaurants emerged, as these businesses were limited to take-out orders.
Community efforts took off, with local nurses and other first responders calling for mask donations, and groups of residents coming through in creative ways (cranking up sewing machines and going the 3D route). We’ll never forget the way the town stepped up to help medical staff in need. A nurse in the literal corona virus trenches at a local hospital emailed Swellesley, asking for help. “We are being asked to work with one flu mask per patient and re-use that mask for eight hours per patient. This is for potential and confirmed COVID-19 patients. N95 masks can only be used in aerosolized cases and cases in which the patient is on a ventilator, and must be re-used for the shift. This is the plan for the COVID-19 floor. So please, if you have even one mask, it’s really needed.”
So many volunteers came forward. Scores of residents shared masks and other medical supplies they had set aside for their own families. A small crew of volunteers did pickups all over town, carefully following instruction. (“Please pick up the bag hanging on the fence,” or “Can you wave to our kids when you come? They’ll be waiting at the window.”) Later, after the supplies had reached their destination, we learned that the nurses, a tough bunch who don’t usually cry when it comes to work-related issues, burst into tears.
Other efforts included those by students who helped elders unable to get out and safely shop for themselves. “Since we are all out of school for an indefinite amount of time, we decided we wanted to give back to the community in a way that will help combat this horrible virus,” they told us.
The town put out a call for more Medical Reserve Corps. members.
Organizations such as the Rotary and Wellesley COVID-19 Relief Fund raised big bucks to support local businesses and others in town. Rotary raised thousands and partnered with multiple local restaurants, which committed to delivering hundreds of meals apiece over a 3-week span to 20 area hospitals. The effort not only benefited the restaurants, but their suppliers. The Relief Fund issued grants worth $125K during the pandemic, starting out by helping residents in need of emergency groceries and other needs, and wrapping up in summer 2021 with a grant that supported teen summer jobs.
Wellesley Public Schools was coming to grips with teaching kids remotely. Supt. David Lussier said in late March that “we need to be doing more than we’re doing.”
First responders in town were also putting their health on the line serving the public. One of Wellesley’s firefighters was hospitalized with COVID-19 in spring 2020, while other several additional responders became ill from the virus.
Grim numbers poured out of the Health Department and area facilities serving seniors.
Church bells rang later in the year to remember those who died from the virus.
Wellesley singer belts out “Wake Me Up When CORONAVIRUS Ends”
As the pandemic rolled on, the town introduced rules to try to safeguard residents, though not all agreed with masking protocols, and tempers flared on town trails and in other public spaces. Some wanted to exclude runners and cyclists from the Brook Path, but that ill-conceived notion was abandoned, in part because no explanation was offered for giving walkers preferential treatment.
Meanwhile, attention to mental health impacts of the pandemic and related isolation increased.
Local businesses kept themselves afloat in part by qualifying for paycheck protection program loans.
Toward the end of summer 2020, with hope that schools would reopen, Wellesley put its collective brainpower and financial resources to work to establish an innovative COVID-19 testing system that earned plenty of accolades beyond town borders. Take home tests and surveillance testing were rolled out.
A combination of online and in-person school was launched in the fall of 2020, and that sparked a surge of families sending their kids to private schools for in-person classes. A good number of those students wound up staying at the private schools as later school enrollment data has shown.
Sometimes the community took steps forward, then backward, such as in early 2021 when schools needed to be closed following vacation breaks during which COVID-19 cases spiked.
The town’s Health Department expressed frustration at not being able to handle more COVID-19 prevention itself rather than relying on state-mandated regional vaccination centers. Though encouraging numbers also emerged, with more residents being vaxed. Clinics continued to be held locally years after COVID-19’s outbreak.
As 2021 went on, more of life in town returned to normal. The college campuses reopened to visitors, for example. Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend and Veterans Parade returned, albeit in fall rather than spring.
With the COVID-19 pandemic being declared just 5 years ago by WHO, and everyone reading this living through it, many of the memories documented above remain fresh. So too are the impacts, from those lost to the virus or still sick, to businesses that never recovered from lockdowns and employees who saw what they saw on the front lines, to students who suffered from inferior learning and social experiences to schools that now attempt to carry on without the one-time funds supplied by the government during the pandemic.
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