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Mayor Walsh urges residents to heed Thanksgiving warnings
"If it's possible, eat outdoors," Walsh said. "Open the windows and doors in your house. The forecast is 57 degrees with rain, so getting fresh air circulating through your house or your apartment is really, really important."
He also advised against sharing food or utensils.
"Think especially about your older relatives," Walsh said. "This really is about older relatives and people with medical conditions and making sure they stay safe."
On the restaurant front, Walsh said the city's public space program allowing outdoor dining on sidewalks ends Dec. 1, but restaurants can continue serving meals outdoors on their own private property.
"In addition, we're working on outdoor dining programs for the spring," Walsh said, adding that more details will be available next week. "We remain committed to providing restaurants with the opportunities to help them survive and succeed."
Walsh said that contrary to recent rumors that have circulated, city officials have no current plans to shutter restaurants completely.
"We have no, no, no intention of shutting down restaurants in the city of Boston as of right now," Walsh said.
However, he cautioned, that could change.
"A week from now if we're in a different place, if a hospital system is stressed, if the numbers continue to go up, we might have a different conversation," Walsh said. "But as of right now, there's no – we have no plans to shut restaurants down."
The mayor also touched on national politics, telling reporters he was on a recent conference call with dozens of other mayors and President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris.
"It was really refreshing to talk about the issues that matter," Walsh said. "We were talking about the vaccine and getting it out … across America. We were talking about the coronavirus. We were talking about housing policy. We talked about the eviction moratorium ending on the federal level. We talked about unemployment benefits ending in states and getting some help. We talked about infrastructure bills."
In speaking about the call, Walsh appeared to give his strongest on-the-record acknowledgement yet that he plans to seek reelection next year. Boston City Councilors Andrea Campbell and Michele Wu have both announced that they intend to run.
Referring to the call with the incoming Biden-Harris administration, Walsh said "if that was any idea of how this administration is going to work, I look forward to working with this administration as mayor for the many years to come."
A reporter quickly followed up by asking, "as mayor?"
"As mayor," replied Walsh.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.
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