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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-04-09 Board of Health Minutes North Andover Board of Health Meeting Minutes Thursday—April 9, 2020 7:00 p.m. Virtual Meeting Present: Frank MacMillan,Joseph McCarthy,Patrick Scanlon,Michelle Davis,Daphnee Alva-LaFleur,Brian LaGrasse,Stephen Casey Jr,Caroline Ibbitson and Toni K.Wolfenden. L CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order at 7:01 pm. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Meeting Minutes from February 27,2020 and March 19,2020 presented for approval. Motion made by Joseph McCarthy to approve the minutes,seconded by Michelle Davis,all were in favor and the minutes approved.(5-0-0) III. NEW BUSINESS A. MOTION made by Joseph McCarthy to recommend placing signs at the Common and other high traffic areas,to walk in a single direction,while practicing social distancing and wearing a mask. Motion seconded by Patrick Scanlon.All were in favor and the motion was approved.(5-0-0) B. Variance request for camp—Ready, Set,Row Ready,Set,Row is applying for a variance to alleviate the new requirement of nursing staff or health care consultant to be a licensed registered nurse or doctor for an overnight camp. They are requesting the variance because they signed the contract with Brooks School in November and they were unable to obtain a licensed registered nurse or doctor. Ready,Set,Row is an overnight rowing camp for ages 14 and older. It is supposed to run from June to mid-July,but because of the requirement,they are now running a one-week camp at the end of August In the past they had a nurse practitioner who had a child attending the camp and became the health care consultant. The current health care supervisor is CPR and First Aid trained. They have trainers who come in and administer medicine and then the health care consultant reviews all paperwork prior to the beginning of camp. MOTION made by Michelle Davis to grant the camp,Ready, Set,Row a VARIANCE: allowing them not to have a 24 hour nursing staff or health care consultant be a registered nurse or doctor on the condition that all camper and staff medical records are available for review by the North Andover Public Health Nurse by July 1,2020. Let it be known that next year they need to adhere to the regulation. Motion seconded by Joseph McCarthy. All were in favor and the motion was approved.(5-0-0) Due to COVID-19 the Health Department will not be issuing any ice cream truck permits at this time. It will be discussed at a future board meeting. 2019 North Andover Board of Health Meeting Page 1 of 3 Board of Health Members:Dr.Francis P.MacMillan,Jr.,MD,Chairman/Town Physician;Joseph McCarthy,Member/Clerk; Michelle Davis,RN,Member;Daphnee Alva-LaFleur,Member;Patrick Scanlon,DO,Member Health Department Staff: Brian LaGrasse,Health Director;Stephen Casey Jr.,Health Inspector;Caroline Ibbitson,Public Health Nurse;Toni K. Wolfenden,Health Department Assistant IV. COMMUNICATIONS,ANNOUNCEMENTS,AND DISCUSSION A. Brian LaGrasse updates the Board on COVID-19. As of 4:00 today,Massachusetts has just under 20,000 positives cases of COVID-19 with numbers increasing daily. This is a result from increased testing and increased spread of the disease. The department has been participating in multiple state, local and regional calls several times per week. Staff is responding to emails,voicemails and telephone calls that continue to come into the COVID Hotline. Outreach continues for business and employees with questions and concerns. Public Service Announcements(PSA)have been added to assist senior citizens on social distancing. These PSA's have been distributed through the Meals on Wheels Program.This and other PSAs are available through the website. (See Appendix A.)The Town Common is very busy during the day. There are many walkers and dog walkers. Placing signs to encourage walking in one direction would limit the face-to-face exposure. Peak is believed to be between April 10 thru April 20,2020. Some hospitals are at capacity or right below it. Dr. Stephen Zappala is in the process of starting a drive-through testing clinic sponsored by CVS at the Andover Doctor Park. Caroline Ibbitson discusses contract tracing with the Board. Patients are asked who they have been in contact with 48 hours before symptoms started. This captures a larger time frame. Testing result times have improved. The turnover is general 48 hours. As of today,North Andover has 67 positive cases. Ten of these cases became known today,of which,five were from long-term care facilities. Stephen Casey continues to work on PSA's. He also distributed handouts regarding aid information to local businesses. Businesses continue to be inspected regularly to ensure cleanliness, sanitization and PPE is in place where needed. Large grocery stores have begun the Commonwealth recommendation of one-way aisles. This ensures customers are moving in on direction,which helps with face-to-face contact. Frank MacMillan discusses the improper disposal of personal protection equipment. Gloves are contaminated. Leaving it for someone else to pick up is irresponsible. A mask should not be touched with contaminated gloves. Frank discusses universal masking. In today's Wall Street Journal,there is an article on the Hong Kong Experience. The city has 7 'h million people,as of Wednesday there have been only 961 cases. The city had a much worse experience than the United States with SARS,and MERS. The Hong Kong trains are running at full capacity,restaurants are open,but everyone wears a mask to protect everyone around them. If universal masking is in place, than the community spread will be less. Joseph McCarthy supports the one way walking in high foot traffic areas. He opens a proposed motion to be discussed by the Board. Symptoms for coronavirus can set in typically within 2-14 days with the average being five days. The track at the High School will be the next best place to put up signs with the school departments approval to help with social distancing. Hospital staff and front line workers continue to struggle obtaining personal protection equipment. Peak for the virus in Massachusetts is expected around April 18'with April 161 in New Hampshire. Frank has about sixty days of PPE remaining. Most of the equipment is going to New York and Boston,but the outlying areas are struggling to get adequate PPE. The frontline staff need N95 masks. With the population density being lower,there will be less community spread but there is major concern about obtaining protection. Long term care facilities have been receiving communications from the Department of Public Health(DPH). Caroline has been reaching out to them to give support. They have many precautions in place,which includes,checking staff members temperature,limiting visitors or not allowing any visitors. They are wearing masks. If they have a COVID positive patient,isolation is used. The same staff work with COVID positive cases,one CNA, one RN. First responders have a list of all COVID positive patients. If 911 emergency is needed,the responders are aware ahead of time and the proper precautions can be taken.Any close contacts are being quarantined at home,with the assistance from Caroline.If a health care worker has been exposed,they too are quarantined at home. If they are asymptomatic,hospital and long-term care facilities,which are desperate and running out of staff,they can return to work. The Health Department has distributed to the long care facilities masks however,they are in need of gowns, unfortunately,and these are not in stock. For the public,hand washing and social distancing is very important with proper mask usage. There is concern with lifting the precautions to soon,which could cause another spike. Mental health is a large factor as the social distancing and bans continue with the fight against the virus. Isolation can be very damaging for people of all age groups. Many people are asking if the cure is worse than the illness itself. Frank asks for the Commonwealth to consider masks being distributed in grocery stores to help reduce the spread of the virus. From an office standpoint, Patrick and Frank use telemedicine,which are video assisted conferences to patients in their homes and telephone visits. All insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid have significantly lightened criteria to allow doctors to practice appropriate physical distancing and still be in contact with the patients. New Hampshire has seen a steady influx of critical care patients requiring ventilators. The New Hampshire surge is roughly a week behind Massachusetts. The hospital has controlled all access,all people;employees included are screened at the front door. They work in teams;one team works for a North Andover Board of Health Meeting Minutes Thursday—April 9,2020 7:00 p.m. Virtual Meeting few days and the other team then comes in and works. There is no overlap,separating the physician and nursing teams from each other in case they are exposed they do not lose all staff. The hospital and offices have begun looking ahead for phasing the patients with non-emergent issues back in for procedures and care. This poses some difficulty with social distancing within an office setting. One idea is to have the patient check in at the front door,leave there phone number and they will be called when it is time for the office visit. The new normal is still being engineered. Frank believes that this will be in effect until a vaccine or effective treatment is in place. Prolonging physical distancing for as long as humanly possible will avoid another potential surge;protect the elderly and people with underlying medical issues. V. ADJOURNMENT MOTION made by Joseph McCarthy to adjourn the meeting.Michelle Davis seconded the motion and all were in favor.The meeting adjourned at 8:24 pm. Prepared by: Toni K. Wolfenden, Health Dept.Assistant Reviewed bv: All Board of Health Members&Brian LaGrasse, Health Director Si ng ed bX: 1/6­e-wZ � P� Joseph McCarthy, Clerk of the Board Date Signed Documents Used At Meeting: Agenda Public Service Announcements 2019 North Andover Board of Health Meeting Page 3 of 3 Board of Health Members:Dr.Francis P.MacMillan,Jr.,MD,Chairman/Town Physician;Joseph McCarthy,Member/Clerk; Michelle Davis,RN,Member;Daphnee Alva-LaFleur,Member,Patrick Scanlon,DO,Member Health Department Staff: Brian LaGrasse,Health Director;Stephen Casey Jr.,Health Inspector;Caroline Ibbitson,Public Health Nurse;Toni K. Wolfenden,Health Department Assistant North Andover Board of Health Agenda Thursday,April 9,2020 7:00 p.m. OPEN SESSION VIRTUAL MEETING Live broadcast can be heard on www.northandovercam.org I. CALL TO ORDER II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. February 27,2020 B. March 19,2020 III. COMMUNICATIONS,ANNOUNCEMENTS,AND DISCUSSION A. COVIDI9 IV. NEW BUSINESS A. Camp Variance-Ready Set Row V. ADJOURNMENT Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law, G.L. c. 30A, Section 18, and the Governor's March 15, 2020 Order imposing strict limitation on the number of people that may gather in one place, this meeting of the North Andover Board of Health will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible. Specific information and the general guidelines for remote participation by members of the public and/or parties with a right and/or requirement to attend this meeting can be found on the Town's website, at www.northandoverma.gov. For this meeting, members of the public who wish to watch the meeting may do so on their televisions by tuning to Comcast Channel 8 or Verizon Channel 26 or online at www.northandovercam.org. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time, via technological means. In the event that we are unable to do so, despite best efforts, we will post on the Town of North Andover website an audio or video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. If the public would like to participate in public hearings please email your question/comment prior to or during the meeting to blagrasse(a)northandoverma.gov The question/comment will be read during the proceedings and responded to accordingly. 2019 North Andover Board of Health Meeting-Meeting Agenda Page 1 of 1 Note: The Board of Health reserves the right to take items out of order and to discuss and/or vote on items that are not listed on the agenda. Board of Health Members: Dr.Frank MacMillan,Jr.,Chairman/Town Physician;Joseph McCarthy,Member/Clerk;Michelle Davis,RN,Member;Daphnee Alva-LaFleur,Member;Patrick Scanlon,D.O.,Member Health Department Staff:Brian LaGrasse, Health Director;Stephen Casey Jr.,Health Inspector; Caroline Ibbitson,Public Health Nurse;Toni K.Wolfenden,Health Department Assistant