Dear all,
I write to you this evening with relevant COVID-19 updates and resources.
As of today, there are 1055 Cambridge residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 95 residents have passed away. Learn more here. There are 105,690 cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts, including 23,227 in Middlesex County. 712,875 patients have been tested, and 7,647 have passed away. Learn more here.
Town Hall
This Wednesday at 5PM, I will be holding a town hall focused on racial justice. I will be joined by Chair of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus Representative Carlos González, Cambridge Police Commissioner Branville Bard, and Lisa Laguerre, Associate Director of Community Relations for the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University.
You can sign up for the Zoom webinar or tune in on CCTV Channel 9 or Facebook Live. Please submit questions that you have to Marjorie.Decker@mahouse.gov.
Thanks to CCTV, you can find recordings of all previous town halls here.
Cambridge Updates
The Cambridge Department of Human Service Programs is offering free Online/Offline Summer 2020 programming to children in Kindergarten-8th grade. Registration will be available starting next Monday, Monday, June 22nd.
The Cambridge Historical Commission and seven archives and archive adjacent repositories will be holding the Cambridge Open Archives virtually this year through Instagram from June 15th-June 19th.
Where to get tested:
Cambridge residents age 8 or older can get tested at the following location free of charge regardless of insurance or immigration status:
CHA East Cambridge Care Center
- To schedule an appointment call 617-665-2928
Translation Resources Available:
Multilingual city resources and information on COVID-19 are available on the City's multilingual help page.
State Action Updates
Governor Baker Press Conference Updates:
Today, Governor Baker announced that there will be more than 50 pop-up COVID-19 testing sites available on Wednesday 6/17 and Thursday 6/18. Those who have recently participated in large gatherings are urged to get tested. Testing is free and open to everyone, including those who are not showing symptoms.
I would like to thank Governor Baker for taking a recommendation from the letter sent by myself and my colleagues Senator Julian Cyr, Senator Jo Comerford & Representative John Mahoney to encourage those who have attended large gatherings to get tested for COVID-19. We ask that you follow suit on the other recommendations in our letter: to ban the use of pepper spray, tear gas & rubber bullets for the duration of COVID.
The CHA East Cambridge Care Center site that has been open to Cambridge residents for testing will be among the 50+ sites offering testing to anyone who has attended a large gathering in the past two weeks.
Federal Action Updates
Today, the Supreme Court ruled that federal civil rights law protects gay, lesbian and transgender workers. This means that federal law will now protect employees from firing and adverse employment decisions made on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Supreme Court also declined to take up petitions from ten challenges to state laws established to limit the availability and accessibility of some firearms. One of these cases was a challenge to a Massachusetts state law involving bans on certain semiautomatic firearms and high capacity magazines. This is one positive step toward ensuring common-sense gun safety across the country.
Where to Give
My'onna Hinton, a four year old from Washington D.C. was accidentally shot in the neck, causing damage to her spinal cord. This is yet another tragic and senseless incident of gun violence. If you are able, I encourage you to donate to this GoFundMe on behalf of the Hinton family to help cover mounting medical bills. I also encourage you to donate to the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, which is a center of healing, teaching and learning for those impacted by murder, trauma, grief, and loss.
If you are able to give to others during this time, I encourage you to look to the following places that are working to help those most affected by COVID-19:
I also encourage you to donate to the following organizations that are engaging in racial justice work:
As always, do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions or concerns at Marjorie.Decker@mahouse.gov.
Sincerely,
Marjorie