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BOSTON — Schools in Massachusetts will remain closed for the rest of the school year, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday as coronavirus cases continued to surge in the state.The state’s stay-at-home advisory and mandatory closure of nonessential businesses remains in effect through May 4.“The data shows we are still very much in the grips of a pandemic here in Massachusetts,” Baker said. “We are working hard to think about a strategy in the [...]

Vital coronavirus news stories are being provided for free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. For more coverage, go to winchester.wickedlocal.com/topics/coronavirus. Please support local journalism by subscribing at https://explore.mypapertoday.com/wickedlocalpremium.Ever since COVID- [...]

Call it a Zoom zoo. It'll put your old, boring video calls out to pasture.As the coronavirus pandemic keeps people home, some farms and animal sanctuaries have crafted a clever way to lighten the mood and raise money by allowing people to "rent" their animals via video call."I think it would get some laughs," Francie Dunlap told the Charlotte Observer. Dunlap is the owner of Mambo, a 8-year-old miniature donkey at Peace N Peas Farm in Indian Trail, North Carolina. [...]

Doctors identified a new symptom of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, informally dubbed “COVID toes.”  The presence of purple or blue lesions on a patient’s feet and toes puzzles infectious disease experts. “They’re typically painful to touch and could have a hot burning sensation,” said Dr. Ebbing Lautenbach, chief of infectious disease at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine. [...]

Our vital coronavirus stories are being provided for free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. For more coverage go to winchester.wickedlocal.com/topics/coronavirus. Please support local journalism by subscribing at https://explore.mypapertoday.com/wickedlocalpremium/April 21 [...]

BOSTON, APRIL 21, 2020.....Gov. Charlie Baker hinted Tuesday that he plans to convene a group of public health, academic and business leaders to assemble a "thoughtful framework" for how Massachusetts might be able to resume more normal economic and social life once the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.At the same press conference in which he announced schools will stay closed through the end of the school year, Baker said he is more focused on the ongoing surge of COVID-19 [...]

It's Earth Day’s 50th birthday! The first Earth Day held April 22, 1970 was marked by peaceful demonstrations by some 20 million Americans in support of environmental protection and reform. It sparked the political change needed to create the EPA and the passage of landmark legislation including the Clean Air, Clean Water, and the Endangered Species Act.In the five decades since it was first celebrated in parks, on streets and college campuses across the U.S., Earth Day has [...]

Minuteman Senior Services has released an update about the services it is continuing to offer during the COVID-19 pandemic.The nonprofit organization serves the communities of Acton, Arlington, Bedford, Boxborough, Burlington, Carlisle, Concord, Harvard, Lexington, Lincoln, Littleton, Maynard, Stow, Wilmington, Winchester and Woburn.Minuteman Senior Services is considered an essential service during this pandemic, and although nearly every aspect of agency operations has been [...]

This fall, Wright-Locke Farm will launch Forest Friends, its own nature-based, preschool-aged program.The program is nature-immersive and designed for children ages 3-6. The small classes, capped at 12 students, will meet twice a week and spend their mornings entirely outdoors, learning in and exploring nature year-round.Forest Friends focuses on unstructured play and exploration to develop social-emotional skills and a connection with the outdoors.For more information [...]

With all classes temporarily held remotely, North Shore Community College’s health care equipment was dormant and unutilized. So when Winchester Hospital reached out in mid-March to see if NSCC could lend its mechanical ventilators, the answer was a resounding “yes.”The current COVID-19 pandemic can lead to profound respiratory failure and mechanical ventilators are in short supply. Mechanical ventilators are sophisticated machines that are used to support the [...]