Gov. Charlie Baker joined Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll on Tuesday to stress the need that the historic seaside city not become the site of a mass COVID-19 spread.
Salem has already effectively shut down its traditional weeks-long Halloween celebration, and will be implementing new measures to deter visitors from coming to town for the rest of October.
The city had already prohibited all outside vendors and street performers and canceled all paid advertising for Halloween.
“In fact, we are using paid dollars to advertise to discourage visitors from coming to Salem,” Driscoll said.
“Despite all of that, Salem is still quite busy,” Driscoll said in announcing a new set of safety measures effective through Halloween weekend.
MBTA commuter rail trains traveling outbound from Boston will not stop in Salem on Friday nights through Halloween between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., Driscoll said, and over the next two weekends, trains will not stop in Salem during the day, between, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
“Normally we are imploring the MBTA for more trains in October,” Driscoll noted.
All businesses are being asked to curtail service by 8 p.m., and lines will not be permitted in public ways after that time, Driscoll added.
Speaking beside Driscoll, Baker said the moves were necessary and that anything like traditional Halloween festivities in Salem would be a clear threat to public health.
“If you haven’t been here [for Halloween], I think it’s really hard to appreciate why the mayor and her team feel so strongly about how important it is to limit the size of the crowds,” Baker said.
“A Gilette Stadium’s worth of people in downtown Salem,” Baker said. “That’s literally shoulder to shoulder.”
Driscoll said she does not yet know how large an economic hit the city will take from suspending most festivities; in normal years, about one-third of the city’s annual tourism revenue is generated in October.
Addressing the rising rate of COVID-19 infections across Massachusetts, Baker said his administration has been preparing for an anticipated new wave of infections as colder weather moves in and that the medical infrastructure remains in place to deal with rising rates.
“The fall is going to be a lot more difficult than the summer, for all the obvious reasons. That being said, I think we are in a much better position to deal with the situation,” Baker said.
Baker also sought to put a damper on hopes that Massachusetts would “turn a corner” in terms of fully eradicating coronavirus here.
“As far as I’m concerned, until there are vaccines or treatments that are very effective, I still think we’re sort of flat-out, straight ahead. I don’t think about it as rounding a corner.”
