State placed town in high-risk zone after cluster of cases.
CHATHAM — Chatham town officials will hold a community meeting at 6 p.m. Monday to discuss the town’s placement in the state’s “red zone” earlier this week for a high incidence of COVID-19 cases.
Red zones are considered areas at highest risk for the spread of the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Chatham officials have said they believe a recent local cluster related to restaurant employees is isolated and not linked to community spread.
Monday’s meeting will be hosted by the Board of Selectmen in collaboration with the Board of Health.
They will provide information on how the state Department of Public Health calculates the average daily incident rate and the factors that led to the reporting that Chatham had more than 8 cases per 100,000 population during a two-week window from Aug. 23 to Sept. 5.
A statement from Town Manager Jill Goldsmith on Friday said the boards “want to gather as much feedback as possible on any actions contemplated to be taken locally moving forward.”
“We understand this designation by the State has caused renewed concerns for people’s health and livelihoods. We believe that level-headed decision-making is a necessity as we continue to strive for a balance between public health and impacts to the local economy,” Shareen Davis, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen, said in the statement.
“The concerns of the community and the health of community members are first and foremost on the minds of the Board of Selectmen,” Davis said.
Goldsmith said in addition to providing feedback during the forum, participants can email questions or comments by 4 p.m. Monday to communityforum@chatham-ma.gov.
Goldsmith said the forum will be held on the Microsoft Teams meeting platform.
A link to join the meeting online and dial-in number and conference ID to join by phone are included in the posted agenda, according to the statement.
The forum will be broadcast live on the town’s government access Channel 18 and livestreamed at youtube.com/chathamchannel18/live, the statement says.
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