Municipal Center staffer positive for Covid; Grafton has had 11 deaths
The first surprise was that it took until November 16 for an employee in the Grafton Municipal Center to test positive for COVID-19.
The second surprise? Despite the pandemic hitting hard back in March, to the point of a statewide shutdown, the town has absolutely no policies or guidelines on how to handle Covid on its home turf.
“We had to kind of make it up as we went along yesterday,” Temporary Town Administrator Carter Terenzini told the Select Board Tuesday night.
As of Tuesday, Grafton has had 215 confirmed Covid cases, including 11 new cases reported Tuesday. Since April, 11 Grafton residents have died of causes officially linked to Covid, according to the Grafton Health Department and Worcester Health Alliance. Massachusetts has seen a severe increase in pandemic numbers, with the Worcester area among the hardest hit.
Luckily, the employee in question had contact with only one other person inside the Municipal Center, Terenzini said. But in trying not to violate the employee’s privacy by revealing their identity, fears swirled through town offices even as Building Inspector Bob Berger walked the halls with a fogger to neutralize any virus that might be present.
The person who had contact with the Covid-positive employee was advised to go into quarantine and work remotely.
According to Grafton health data obtained by Select Board member Ed Prisby, the age breakdown of town residents who contracted Covid was:
49 percent under the age of 40
The largest single number of cases were contracted by people in their 20s at 44 cases
People in their 50s had the second largest at 42 cases
There have been 21 total cases for Grafton residents younger than 19.
Terenzini plans to have a Covid protocol ready before the end of the week. He said employees will be advised about what precautions need to be taken if they are returning from an out-of-state vacation, the need to mask while in public, and who to contact if they discover they are sick or learn of exposure to the virus.
“Right now, the building is good, the staff is good, and we look forward to our one staff member returning, he said.
