Wicked Local
Winchester Town Manager Lisa Wong admits she hasn’t had time to process the past 12 months. No one has even bothered to ask her.
While answering questions via Zoom on March 10, which marked one full year when Gov. Charlie Baker first announced a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one could see the emotional strain on her face. She thought of colleagues who contracted the virus and recovered, and shared the lingering impacts.
But there was one who did not. Dennis Slater, a 50-year resident of Winchester and town employee, died from COVID on Jan. 23.
“He, throughout the pandemic, was coming in every day. He was able to do his job socially distanced,” she said. “He was people’s colleagues for more than 20 years. He was a fixture not only at Town Hall, but in the town. I’ve been here for just over two years, but the devastation to see your colleague contract COVID and then die just a few weeks later … it’s hard. There’s definitely an emo
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The weekend of Dec. 4-6, Winchester saw the most positive cases of COVID-19 it has recorded in a two-day period since the start of the pandemic.
On Dec. 4, 24 positive cases were recorded while Dec. 5 saw an additional 20.
“It was quite an overwhelming weekend,” Health Director Jennifer Murphy said at the virtual meeting of the Select Board on Dec. 7. “We did have to start to engage the help of the contact tracing collaborative. That’s the group that does contact tracing at the state level by Partners in Health.”
Winchester has referred 25 cases their way. But Murphy said school-related cases will stay in town.