HOLYOKE – Holyoke Media announced on March 13 that Holyoke City Coucil is suspending all meetings until further notice. Earlier in the week, on March 10, Mayor Alex Morse announced the cancellation of the St. Patrick’s Parade and Road Race for the first time in the history of the events.

• The inital closure of Holyoke Public Schools was announced on March 13 during a press conference. However, schools will provide to-go bags of both breakfast and lunch from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the following schools: Donahue, Holyoke High School North, Kelly, Lawrence and Sullivan.

• Holyoke Community College has suspended all on-campus classes from March 23 to March 27. Online courses will continue. The library, CAPs, Thrive, the HCC food pantry and college offices will remain open. The Campus Center dining commons will be close but the P.O.D. will be open for grab-and-go breakfast, lunch, and snacks. PVTA bus service will still be available.

HCC President Christina Royal issued the following letter to the campus communmity: “This has been a challenging week for all of us as we navigate the rapidly changing landscape of this unprecedented COVID-19 crisis.

“Out of an abundance of caution, HCC buildings will be closed on Monday, March 16 for extensive cleaning and disinfecting of campus. Please note that there are no known cases of COVID-19/coronavirus on our campus; we are taking these precautions with the health of our students, faculty, and staff in mind. The company we have contracted with has said that cleaning should be completed in a day. Should additional time for cleaning be needed, we will issue another notification.

“Higher education is facing difficult, often excruciating decisions related to this crisis. For HCC, these decisions impact each one of us on myriad levels. We have deep concern for the health and safety of our students and employees, and we must balance this with the reality that our community relies upon us for critical resources and support.

“This is a rapidly evolving situation and we will continue to provide updates as necessary. Please visit hcc.edu/coronavirus for further information and resources.”

• In accordance with city-wide policy, and amid growing concerns regarding the potential spread of the novel coronavirus, the Holyoke Council on Aging (COA) and Senior Center will be closed except for essential services beginning March 13. Essential services will include scheduled appointments with the COA social worker, a temporary to-go lunch program, paid individual health services (chair massage, foot care, and acupuncture), transportation to regularly scheduled medical appointments, and individual AARP tax preparation appointments. The COA sait it would continue those services for as long as possible, but acknowleged they may need to be temporarily discontinued at some point. The Senior Center will remain fully staffed until further notice.

• Morse announced on March 15 that City Hall, City Hall Annex and the Department of Public Works would be closed starting on March 16. However, regularly scheduled trash and recycling pickup would continue.

• The St. Patrick’s Committee of Holyoke has made the decision to cancel the second annual Marshal Mania concert keeping with the ban set forth by Governor Charlie Baker for any gatherings of over 250 people. The fast and contagious spread of the coronavirus has become a public health and safety concern and though this was not an easy decision to make we want to keep our Committee members and our community healthy and safe.