College COVID-19 testing sites cause concern for residents of Chinatown. (Photo courtesy of Carey Lin/Sampan)
The office of Councilor Ed Flynn convened another meeting on September 15, with the purpose of communicating about two testing sites in Chinatown. At this meeting, representatives from testing sites responded to complaints from residents about long lines forming outside the testing sites. Attendees also addressed the issues of penalties for conduct violations.
“How would you feel if I open up a COVID-19 testing site directly across the street from where you live? How would you feel? Would you feel safe?” a resident asked all attendees. She works, lives and shops in Chinatown. She has young kids and elderly relatives, who have been trying to avoid going on the streets because of their fears. “I really wonder whether you could actually implement better measures to prevent lines from queuing up,” she said.
One testing site is located at the original Tufts bookstore location, based at 116 Harrison Avenue, while the other is at 171 Harrison Avenue, a Tufts Medical Center space. The testing site at the bookstore space is open for university students of Emerson and Tufts, while the second site is open to the public. Rebecca Deusser, Chief of Staff at Tufts Medical Center, described what had happened that caused big lines over the past week. One problem was that the door was locked when the building was opening, at the 116 Harrison Avenue location, and so staff had no access to it, which caused a delay. Another delay was related to a fire drill in the building, during which people were evacuated, she said.
As for the two lines that appeared on the day of the meeting, Deusser said, one was at 8 am when the facility opened. There were six people in line, and it was resolved in one minute. Then around 1:15 pm, they had a line of about 12 people, a problem that was also resolved within one minute.
Deusser further explained how they resolved the lines. Their staffers talked to individuals who were in line and ensured that they were supposed to be there. The staff then brought the individuals into the center so that they could be processed faster, she said.
“I’ve worked in Chinatown for a number of years. I’m on-site frequently, I feel very safe in the neighborhood myself, but I also understand the fears associated with COVID and people in line,” Deusser said. “We’re committed for both testing sites to do all we can every day to minimize the length of the lines. We continue to work on it week by week, day by day, to balance the lines and the need for continued testing, as we are combating the virus.”
According to Deusser, over the past less than four weeks, the testing site located at the original Tufts bookstore, has tested almost 10,000 students. “By and large, our experience has been very few lines,” she said. “And when there were lines, we were able to resolve them relatively quickly.”
“I’m not defending if there’s a line,” said Peggy Ings, Vice President of Government and Community Relations at Emerson College. She said she just wanted to point out that the line looks longer from a bystander’s perspective, because people are lining up with six feet in between each other, to observe the rules for social distancing. “I think that’s what happens at times,” she said.
Erik Muurisepp, Assistant Vice President of Campus Life from Emerson, responded that Emerson has a community compact for all students studying in person, when asked if students would receive penalties for violating safety protocols. Towards the violations that are “egregious, repetitive and very serious,” the school will act swiftly, through community standards.
