Councilor wants to empower residents on reporting bogus COVID-19 testing sites

WORCESTER — After an unlicensed Grafton Street storefront COVID-19 testing site was shut down by the state last week, one city councilor is calling for the city to help residents decipher whether a testing site is legitimate and make it easier to report fraudulent sites.

District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj has an order on Tuesday's City Council agenda asking the city manager to take action that could prevent a repeat of the situation last week, when city and state officials converged on the former beauty salon at 1 Rice Square offering COVID-19 testing.

After the city and state received several complaints from residents who had suspicions about the legitimacy of the operation, a cease-and-desist order was issued for the Center for Covid Control sites in Worcester and Dartmouth.

Haxhiaj said she wants the city administration to put some sort of process in place that immediately notifies city health and inspectional services departments when a licensed operation opens up.

"What I'm really looking for is to figure out a way to protect residents from similar sites," Haxhiaj said Friday.

The city said last week it received complaints from residents reporting concerns about the site and the testing process, which was performing rapid testing for the pandemic virus without a permit.

Haxhiaj said it's important that even as the state investigates, there is a local response. She said a lot of people went to the Rice Square site in between the time the state Department of Public Health started investigating and the day it was shut down.

District 3 Councilor George Russell said Friday he initially started receiving complaints about the lines forming around the block of people awaiting tests and traffic and parking concerns in the area. He said he had questions about whether the business filed for change-of-use permits with the city and what standards the site was adhering to.

"Obviously, my first question was how a beauty shop was being used as a medical clinic," Russell said Friday.

He said he relayed residents' questions and concerns to the city and said the city was preparing to "pull the plug" on the operation if the state was not prepared to.

Eviction, foreclosure relief

Haxhiaj is also asking the city administration Tuesday to consider an executive order or ordinance that establishes a local moratorium on foreclosures and evictions for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

At last week's City Council, several members of the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team reported that since the state moratorium ended, evictions and foreclosures have roared back and are being driven in part by the impact of COVID-19.

Dog licenses

Resident and recent City Council candidate Yenni Desroches is petitioning the council to address a loophole in the city's dog licensing system. She said the ordinance should be changed to allow up to four dogs to be registered per dwelling unit. The current limit is two and Desroches noted in her petition that kennel licenses are not generally offered until the number of dogs hits five.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj eyes fake COVID-19 testing sites