Updated at 12:43 p.m.
Somerville announced Fridaythat the city will not move into Phase 3 of the state's reopening plan until at least Aug. 3, citing concerns about the state's contact tracing program and rising new case averages in the area.
Mayor Joe Curtatone had announced last week that he would delay Somerville's move to Phase 3 until at least Monday, July 20. But in an interview with WGBH's Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu Friday morning, he said he has grave concerns about the state's reopening pace as the virus surges in other areas of the country.
The third phase of Gov. Baker's reopening plan, which the administration has named "Vigilant," has allowed many indoor spaces — including gyms, indoor dining at restaurants, casinos and some personal services — to reopen. Baker implemented this phase in Massachusetts July 6 and Boston followed suit July 13.
"We don't have the pieces in place to be truly vigilant," Curtatone said. "We're not out of anything, we're just entering another phase. People are continuing to become ill and they will continue to die."
Curtatone referenced research that has found that the risk of transmission of the coronavirus is much higher in indoor spaces and pointed to California — which shut down indoor activities again this week as virus cases spiked — as an example of his concern.
"Remember, California is four to five weeks ahead of Massachusetts in flattening out the curve and reopening much like we're doing now, and we're not heeding those warnings," he said. "Did we pay all that sacrifice to our personal lives, our economy, and the lives of human beings, to rush to open activities like casinos?"
In a press conference later in the day, Curtatone said he understood that this decision will be hard on businesses but stressed that reopening too soon and then having to shut down again would be worse.
"There's no one-to-one trade off between a dollar and someone's life," he said. "Businesses won't recover unless there's total consumer confidence" and businesses are reopened in a sustainable way.
He also criticized what he called a lack of a state-led strategy for navigating the pandemic.
"I am frustrated that we have 351 different plans for the 351 different communities in the commonwealth," he said. "We need a state-led, coordinated strategy."
In a July 10 op-ed published in CommonWealth Magazine, Curtatone further criticized Gov. Baker's decision to expand the state's reopening process.
"I have to report that what we’re being handed is a hot mess," he wrote. "We’ve watched other states bungle their reopenings and we seem to be following in their footsteps."
As of July 16,Massachusetts has reported about 106,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 8,000 deaths. Somerville, the most densely populated city in Massachusetts, has reported 34 deaths due to the disease. Though businesses that reopened in phase 3 in the rest of the state will not reopen in Somerville, the city has adopted some other state guidelines, including increasing the capacity limit in grocery stores and reopenings in the health and human services sector.
