An expanded campaign to spread awareness of the coronavirus is set to begin this weekend in Revere, a city that has a daily positive testing rate three times higher than average in Massachusetts.
Officials hoping to lower these figures are focusing on providing outreach at certain public hotspots including Revere Beach. The city will give out fliers and masks and provide public health messages over a broadcast system in both English and Spanish.
This comes just days after the city's mayor, Brian Arrigo, announced he had cancelled upcoming city events, including next week's high school graduation ceremony.
“Our goal is to rollback some things and prevent a massive, drastic closure," Arrigo said.
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At public parks, Revere Police will establish additional patrols to encourage visitors to maintain social distance. The city will also step up efforts to disinfect playground equipment.
“People should start waking up and really realizing that this is a very, very serious thing, and if we don’t get a handle on it, there’s not going to be a tomorrow for a lot of people,” Revere beachgoer Thomas Branagan said.
Revere also plans to extend free COVID-19 testing through September 12, and Arrigo will announce a second testing site for the city on Monday.
