Susannah Sudborough and Michael DeCicco/The Taunton Daily Gazette
TAUNTON Taunton-area municipalities are taking action in the wake of Gov. Baker s decision to stop giving vaccines for distribution to most municipalities in Massachusetts.
Concerned that too few people in Taunton and Bristol County have had a chance to be vaccinated, this week, Taunton Mayor Shaunna O Connell wrote Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders urging her to consider increasing vaccine opportunities for Tauntonians. The Weekly Vaccination Report posted on Thursday, February 18th contains alarming information. In the entire state, Bristol County has the lowest number of vaccine doses shipped by percentage of county population, O Connell wrote.
By Michael J. DeCicco
DIGHTON Six Dighton residents have died of COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic, all in just the past three months and Dighton health agent Todd Pilling said his department is working overtime to keep that number from climbing.
Of those six total COVID deaths over the course of the pandemic, one was in November, three in December and two in January.
To address what could be done to fix the problem, he said, Better weather would help for gatherings to be outside. People following the social distancing rules. We are looking forward to the vaccine having an effect on the numbers, Pilling said.
DIGHTON Dighton has had a total of four COVID deaths and three of them have been in just the past three weeks amid a steep surge, Dighton Health Agent Todd Pilling said.
Those deaths occurred on Nov. 9, Dec. 11, Dec. 13 and Dec. 26. All were older residents, he said.
“Remind people you still have to social distance. Please keep your distance,” Pilling said.
It’s tough duty having to talk to the relatives of those who died, Pilling said.
“We get the call, ‘My husband passed’,” Pilling said.
But that’s what it means to be a COVID contact tracer.
That used to be the job of Town Nurse Lori Desmarais. But she normally works two hours a month doing contact tracing for other communicable diseases.