Cape Bracing For Summer Season Amid Coronavirus Surge: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Thursday, April 8. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Cape Cod officials are expecting a record-breaking tourism season this summer but are worried the influx of visitors will hamper efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
• Native Americans in Massachusetts are calling on the organizers of the Boston Marathon to move the already rescheduled date for the storied race because it now conflicts with a day meant to commemorate the contributions of Indigenous people.
• Less than 1 percent of construction contracts related to Polar Park, the new stadium for the Red Sox's top minor league affiliate, went to women and minority-owned firms — well below the 17 percent officials promised.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

Cape Cod officials said they expect the region will have a strong tourist season this summer, but anxiety about new coronavirus variants remains.

A day after CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the B.1.1.7 strain is now the "most common lineage" in the United States, state Sen. Julian Cyr (D-Truro), and other officials on the Cape Cod COVID-19 Response Task Force, said new variants of the virus are playing a big role in driving up the region's case count.

Cyr said one of the challenges this summer will be getting essential workers, especially younger ones, vaccinated. He said Cape Cod health officials are collaborating with local health agents to reach essential workers town-by-town, but reaching them isn't as easy as reaching seniors or homebound residents.

"It is a difficult population to reach, and some of the tools to reach them are different," Cyr said. "With older adults, people tend to pick up their phones a lot more I don't know a millennial who doesn't screen their calls before picking up the phone. I know I do."

Read the full story.

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Thursday's Other Top Stories

Move the Marathon: Native Americans in Massachusetts are calling on the organizers of the Boston Marathon to move the already rescheduled date for the storied race because it now conflicts with a day meant to commemorate the contributions of Indigenous people. The Boston Athletic Association announced in January that the 125th edition of the marathon would be pushed back from its traditional April running to Oct. 11, assuming road races are allowed to take place under Massachusetts' COVID-19 restrictions by then.

Polar Park problems: Less than 1 percent of construction contracts related to Polar Park, the new stadium for the Red Sox's top minor league affiliate, went to women and minority-owned firms. The city of Worcester and Polar Park construction manager Gilbane-Hunt had said 17 percent of contracts went to women or minority-owned companies. But the WGH discovered many of those contracts did not actually meet that standard.

Burglars busted: Two men were arrested and charged Wednesday in connection to a series of burglaries across Middlesex and Essex counties and southern New Hampshire in 2019 and 2020. Investigators used surveillance images to identify the burglars, and later found evidence on their cell phones about the burglary conspiracy. Gabriel Estuardo Rojas, 28 of Methuen, and Manuel Jose Lopez, 24 of Lawrence, were charged with multiple counts.

Learn more about getting a COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts at Patch's information hub.

By The Numbers

$20.9 billion: The net worth of Fidelity's Abigail Johnson, making her the richest Massachusetts resident, according to Forbes. There were 24 billionaires from Massachusetts on this year's list.