What the BLEEP is going on in Ptown?

Last night (Sunday) there was a special Town Meeting called due to the cluster outbreak in Provincetown stemming from the 4th of July Weekend. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY THERE IS AN INDOOR MASK MANDATE IN PROVINCETOWN.

There have been so many posts of opinion on social media we felt time to give you the facts and what we feel is a very balanced opinion for the ex Town Manager, David Panagore.  For those of you who want the basic facts here you go (as of July 24th)

• # confirmed positive: 430
• 342 are Mass resident: 342, 153 are Provincetown residents, 69% reported vaccinated
• Total Hospitalizations: 3 (1 vaccinated, 2 not vaccinated)
• Number of Deaths: 0
• Percent positivity: 12.34% (high of 15% reported on July 15th)
• The indoor mask mandate will return to an advisory when town officials see below a 3% positivity rate of COVID-19 tests for a continuous five (5) days,

 
For the most current accurate information go to the Official Town Site or, the Mass Department of Health Dashboard

Message from ex Town Manager David Panagore

Today’s a Sunday and Provincetown continues to grapple with COVID . We are a national media darling , getting focused media attention while nationally at least the elderly in the region nursing homes where an outbreaks has also occurred and has greater potential for death has not received the same attention. Another sign that media attention reveals and also masks the news.

Sunday’s are not usual days here or anywhere for a Select Board/Board of Health joint meeting , but nothing about the last 18 months of COVID can be called usual , and I am glad they are not waiting , but instead meeting and discussing the new data releases yesterday. Emergencies require focuses time, energy and public communication.

I am not jealous in the least of being a local official trying to manage this situation in Provincetown trying to balance all the interests to create good public policy. For myself , and one of the better parts of living in a small town, I trust the people making these decisions because I know them , respect them and recognize they are doing the best they can with the data they have in the moment. Many do and yet many others in their zeal to push their approach assume some verson of the worst.

Yesterday new numbers were released and the results are mixed, no surprise that (and I posted these #s as well) the number of positive cases went up substantially , but that’s basically a lagging indicator back to when they caught COVID, a more leading indicator what % of those being tested are positive has gone down, just not as much as you might think after folks who attends Bear Week departed, meaning things are trending better but COVID here is moving thru the local population, more than 30 new cases a day I hear . Testing for COVID at the sewer plant willl also help show were we are at.

We all hoped things would get back to normal after Memorial Day , and now many wonder if we moved too quick while many others still hoped till recently we could have Carnival parade and fireworks and life should go on.

The vaccine works and hospitalizations remain low. That’s we can never loose sight of. Some locals are calling for more regulation, some are expressing frustrating that this is expected and well it’s a personal choice but business must go on. The business impacts are real , quarantining, closing and that lack of uniformity creating confusion. Yesterday was quieter than usual and the day trippers to some degree decided to not visit .

In this situation, I see owners who did require VAX cards from the start of the season, and others who did not who now have, once the horse is out of the barn, publicly racing to catch up and require VAX cards. Everyone is scrambling to catch up, a common feature of emergencies that by assuming optimistic outcomes, hope springs eternal, we can both act too late and can ease up too soon. Everyone has an opinion, except the tourists most of whose seem to move about town as if things were normal, although I am told here has been an uptick on Commercial Street masking in the last couple days. As a town back in April. we invited in the tourists, laying out plans to hold muted but obviously now heavily attended theme weeks and business roared. Everyone wants things back to normal, everyone wants to reclaim our social and interpersonal joys. Here now in July, I know two things, regular scheduled communications to this community are extremely important and you have to be measured but you have to be proactive when dealing with a crisis. 

— David Panagore