The City of Lynn is hosting a free flu clinic and COVID-19 care kit distribution day on Saturday, October 24th from 10:00AM-2:00PM, or until supplies last. Residents can receive both a flu shot and a care kit at Breed Middle School. Those who only want to receive a care kit should go directly to Classical High School.

All Lynn residents over the age of 6 months old are welcome and encouraged, regardless of their insurance or immigration status. Residents who do have insurance must bring their insurance card and complete an insurance form which will be available on site or can be filled out ahead of time by printing the form from the City of Lynn website (www.lynnnma.gov).

Please call the Department of Public Health at Lynn City Hall at 781-598-4000 with any questions.

The above info. was provided to us by Mayor McGee’s office

New member show at LCTV: The Secret Society of Aging Divas!

Over the last several months multiple members at LCTV have continued to produce content via new means. Frankly Speaking, Tale of The Tape, & Receive Your Miracle are some of the shows from our members that you can watch. Recently member Julie Griffin began her show, “The Secret Society of Aging Divas” via video conferencing.

From Julie: “Check out our hilarious episode of THE SECRET SOCIETY OF AGING DIVAS available now on LCTV. Don’t miss a fun-tastic moment as the Red Neck Aging Diva Bobbi-Jo talks about how much she misses Harry Johnson AND Julie G shares Deep Dark Confessions. Stop by and laugh till you pee yourself!!

THE SECRET SOCIETY OF AGING DIVAS is a support group like no other . . . Women Benefit by it and Men Need to Learn the Divas’ innermost thoughts . . . .Click the link to join the merriment.“

Updates from state government

• As of Tuesday night, DPH reported a total of 142,295 cases of COVID-19. The state has now confirmed a total of 9,537 deaths from the virus.
• Adults over 65 will join front-line health care workers, residents with underlying medical conditions that increase their risks from COVID-19, and other essential workers as the first to qualify for COVID-19 vaccines in Massachusetts, the Baker administration said Tuesday. During a visit to a new Suffolk Downs testing facility Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Baker outlined a rough sketch of the state’s draft plan for distributing an inoculation for the highly infectious virus once it becomes available. The plan was submitted by the administration to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week. Massachusetts can expect between 20,000 and 60,000 doses of a vaccine in the first phase of distribution, according to the plan.
• Those on the other end of the age range appear to be driving the most significant chunk of new infections: over the past two weeks, young adults between 20 and 39 represented the highest positive test rate in the state. The rising infection numbers, higher on Monday than any day since May, albeit with far more tests conducted, prompted Governor Baker and his top deputies to renew their warnings Tuesday against large gatherings and other unregulated social events. Asked if the uptick in cases would prompt him to scale back reopening, Governor Baker told reporters that most of the recent growth in infections has come not from dining or other public activities, but instead from “informal events and social gatherings.”
• House and Senate budget writers will hear from a lineup of Baker administration Cabinet officials on Wednesday when Administration and Finance Secretary Michael Heffernan leads off with testimony on the $45.5 billion spending plan unveiled last week for the fiscal year that began July 1. The House and Senate Ways and Means committees, chaired by Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues, plan a noon hearing to receive testimony and ask questions of the administration on Gov. Charlie Baker’s revised budget. Staff said that input from anyone not invited to testify, including members of the public, is welcome by contacting the committees. Governor Baker has said he like to see a budget voted on and on his desk by Thanksgiving, but legislative leaders have not outlined plans for budget deliberations.
• Nearly a month after they asked the Baker administration to explore the change, a group of lawmakers filed a bill that would temporarily increase the minimum unemployment benefits Massachusetts pays to help thousands of claimants retroactively access up to $1,800 in federal aid. Sen. Pat Jehlen, who co-chairs the Labor and Workforce Development Committee, and Rep. Stephan Hay, the committee’s House vice chair, unveiled legislation they say would help 17,000 people who narrowly missed qualifying for the federal Lost Wages Assistance program. The Baker administration has been negotiating with FEMA about the benefit level since advocates asked Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta for her help in September, according to lawmakers. The House and Senate on Monday referred the bills (S 2927 / H 5064) to the Labor and Workforce Development Committee.
• Members of the Vocational Education Justice Coalition asked the board of education to force a policy switch that would grant equal access to admissions to anyone who has passed eighth grade, saying the change would open up access to jobs earning $40,000 to $50,000 a year for high school graduates who do not go on to college. They said it’s not fair for schools to pick their students based on grades, attendance, discipline and guidance counselor recommendations. Board chair Katherine Craven suggested that the board also look at the long-term success of vocational education by exploring the rates at which students who attend the schools persist in their chosen fields after graduating.
• State public health officials plan updates to the metric that measures community COVID-19 transmission risks that will incorporate examples where cases at colleges, nursing homes, or jails may push an entire community into the red category and affect decisions about in-person learning, according to the state education commissioner, who added Tuesday that fears of super-spreading schools have turned out to be “somewhat unfounded.” The green-yellow-red stoplight metric announced in August by Governor Baker was quickly adopted by state education officials as the way to determine if in-person, hybrid or remote learning is the best approach in a new school year marked by grave concerns over virus transmission possibilities. The governor a month later emphasized that districts should not react to single incidents, and should make decisions based on three weeks work of community virus data. At Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Riley said he expects the updates to its stoplight metric will reflect “more nuanced” information about virus cases.
• Undergraduate student enrollment in the Massachusetts public higher education system experienced its largest single-year decrease since data collection began in 1996, according to preliminary data presented Tuesday to the Board of Higher Education. The public higher education system in the state witnessed a roughly 7 percent decrease in undergraduate students compared to the fall of 2019, dropping from just over 172,000 students to 160,360. The total undergraduate enrollment for the system has been on the decline since 2014 and can be attributed in part to a large decrease in community college enrollment which fell 11.7 percent in fall 2020 compared to the previous year.
• After wading through a raft of comments from municipal leaders, established industry players and advocates, marijuana regulators on Tuesday ironed out the final wrinkles of their plan to establish a structure for home delivery of marijuana and create new business opportunities and rejected a proposal to delay delivery until 2023. Home delivery of marijuana has long been allowed under the state’s medical marijuana program, and advocates pushed for a delivery-only license in the recreational market, arguing that it will help level the playing field between large corporations and small businesses because the barriers to entry for delivery are typically far less burdensome than those for retail licenses. The Cannabis Control Commission has been thinking about a delivery framework for almost three years and will launch delivery with a period of exclusivity for participants in the CCC’s Social Equity Program and certified economic empowerment applicants. The CCC met Tuesday morning to consider feedback and hold a final discussion about its draft delivery policy, which would create two delivery license types: a “wholesale delivery license” that could buy products wholesale from growers and manufacturers and sell them to their own customers, and a “limited delivery license” that would allow an operator to charge a fee to make deliveries from CCC-licensed retailers and dispensaries. The CCC will meet again on Oct. 29 to review the actual regulatory language of the policies discussed Tuesday and to vote on the full suite of regulations.

From Mayor McGee’s office: The Lynn Public Health Department has confirmed that as of today, the number of active, confirmed positive COVID-19 cases is 377 with 25 new cases today. 4,836 Lynn residents have recovered and 122 have died. The total number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Lynn since March 21, 2020, including those who have died and recovered, is 5,335. Please visit the City of Lynn COVID-19 Data Dashboard which is updated daily.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MA-DPH) is conducting a survey to hear from communities so that it can better help people through the COVID-19 crisis. By taking the survey, you can help find new solutions to community problems, and give MA-DPH the information they need to take action and support the communities that need it most. Anyone who is 14 years old or older can participate in the survey here: www.mass.gov/COVIDsurvey until October 30th.

Stop the Spread Initiative Testing have been extended until December 31^st

Please visit http://www.ci.lynn.ma.us/covid19/resources.shtml#p7GPc1_2 for more information on how you can get a free COVID-19 test in the City of Lynn until December 31st.

We will continue to provide regular updates on COVID-19 through the City website (www.lynnma.gov), social media, and the Smart 911 emergency notification system (sign up at www.smart911.com).