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Home My WebLink About2020-04-15 Board of Health Minutes 0� OPN q0 Town of Reading - Meeting Minutes ED, MA. Board - committee - Commission - Council: PW Board of.Health N20 JUN -4 PM 1: 16 Date: 2020-04-15 Time: 10:00 AM Building: Location: Address: Session: Open Session Purpose: COVID-19 Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Kevin Sexton, Emmy Dove, Eleanor Shonkoff Members - Not Present: Lara Romanowski, Ann Marie Messina Others Present: Jean Delios, Laura Vlasuk Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Eleanor Shonkoff Topics of Discussion: Agenda 10:03am.- Meeting called to order by Dove Discussion of policy regarding guidance for Construction work - Boston has stopped construction Construction workers are getting laid off - The draft reviewed was consistent with state guidance - But in the construction document, it indicates "if exposed, stay home" - (See DPH guidance for essential workers: if asymptomatic and wear a mask, they can come back to work) - Delios —Town has received complaints from construction workers - it may make things more consistent to stay with state recommendations specific to construction workers - Vlasuk—could construction workers choose to slay home? - Delios—an order would help protect the worker - Shonkoff- should we just adhere to state recommendations for#10? • Dove and Sexton; ok - Sexton — raised discussion of#14 • Why cut-resistant gloves and eye protection?This doesn't seem to protect against COVID • Dove- agree. Doesn't seem to offer much protection • Delios - state guidelines recommend but do not require eye protection except when social distancing is impossible • Sexton - is having a mask better protection? Not necessarily N-95, just facial covering • Dove - all construction workers must wear face masks and eye protection when a 6 foot distance cannot be maintained • Sexton - is this too restrictive for people with single-person jobs (ex. internal with homeowners vacant or external)? Page I 1 • Delios-they all received advance notice on Friday; waivers will also be available • Sexton — let's advise them that there are waivers that can come before the Board • Dove—summarizes things to change at this point • Move#16 to #8 slot and renumber thereafter • #14 - change language to replace cut-resistance gloves with face masks • replace "at all times'with "if a six foot distance cannot be maintained" • Discussion of whether this is too extreme • Sexton - Do gloves give false sense of security? • Delios - state website has worksite risk prevention practices; 100% glove policy from today going forward o Eye protection is recommended - in work conditions where required social distancing is impossible, workers should be provided PPE • Dove —suggest that we lift that language and put it in o Sexton & Shonkoff—yes o Decision— include eye protection - Procedural note: Command wants to approve statements; Dove says we vote and then send to Command - Sexton -this document came from town counsel? - Delios - yes; she talked about this with Bob yesterday - Sexton - Motion to adopt Mandatory COVID-19 Policies and Procedures for all Construction Sites and Construction Workers in the Town of Reading as amended Shonkoff-2nd Roll call Sexton -yes Dove -yes Shonkoff—yes Delios -will send to town counsel with track changes; she will cc Dove - then they will approve and push out Discussion of construction site inspections and adherence - Vlasuk—What is the process for inspecting and making sure sites adhere? - Delios - slate guidance says it can be health or building inspectors o She recommends health because health has the full and complete knowledge of the why - Vlasuk—agrees about expertise but notes that we're also increasing our inspections now to make sure people have disposed of expired food o Could Building check when they're doing the other inspections and let us know if there's an issue? - Discussion of whether we could use students - Delios — a checklist could make this easy; someone with public health knowledge has to review a safety plan and review weekly reports; this is not in the wheelhouse of building inspectors Discussion of staffing to complete inspections - Dove - should we hire an additional staff member? - Vlasuk- if we do both construction and restaurants, it'd be better to have more staff. We will likely see a resurgence or, if not, we may have 6 months of the health department being swamped, with contact tracing, meetings, "what have we learned from this", health inspections, etc. Page 1 2 - Delios -the way policy is written, we're probably talking about 40 permit holders whose information needs to be provided to the Health Agent - Shonkoff- can we divide the work, with building doing visual inspection and we review report? - Sexton —we need more staff Discussion of monitoring sites - Delios—suggests larger sites (ex. 16 major construction projects) with follow-up happening in building - Shonkoff—aim to write the policy as what is best for public health; figure out how to implement it as a secondary thing; - Discussion of need for staff, possible payment structures (grant, 1099), posting job on a per- needed basis - Delios - if Board is ok w starting with 12 (for example) of largest projects, could building run through a check-list? - Sexton - if important parts, ex. disinfection, are adhered to, that's most critical - Shonkoff—we don't want to negotiate that we'll just focus on big and let everyone else self- regulale - Sexton—they'll implement for safety of their workers - Delios - option for self-certification and enforcing by complaint? - Sexton - supplemental procedures for sites wth >10 workers; could make them have a designated employee to verify -that's who submits the weekly reports - Shonkoff—still want to make it clear that we could go in and check anyone randomly - Sexton —Could Vlasuk visit sites in beginning and then do as needed? o Discussion. Vlasuk—yes o Vlasuk - people are pushing back-- don't want to meet with Daniel because they don't want to go meet at the location o Discussion of using students, but decision that it's faster for us to do it than train others o Discussion of how we found our current inspectors o Decision - go through Command, we would like to see if any resources are available to us to hire people are current inspectors - Shonkoff—to think about for next time: o Can we require that food service prep people wear masks, especially if they can't maintain social distance? o How are checks on open businesses going? o If has the average# of tracing calls per positive can make projections • Vlasuk—approximately 1 hour per case; if they have many contacts, each new one is 30 minutes to an hour - Sexton - since Vlasuk has mask contact, can we order them and provide them? o Dove can find out whether Commans can order these and to whom they plan to distribute them - Dove - Vlasuk, do you know how restaurants are looking? - Discussion of checks on restaurants o Dove —how are restaurants looking? Vlasuk- Check-ins are starting today, some people have called and not been happy o Shonkoff-what is the plan for deciding where we go? o Vlasuk—we're calling places that are closed, asking if we could go in and check; Daniel meets them there to make sure no food on case, and expired food thrown out, not doing full comprehensive inspections. Page 13 o Shonkoff- For businesses that are open, how are we doing with checking on the social distancing measures, handwashing, etc.? o Vlasuk- we are doing this on a complaint basis; They visited 3 - Dove - can we swap the order and do open businesses now before closed? - Sexton —confirming, we didn't do an initial check on all? - Decision - Do a check on all open businesses 11:31 Sexton - Motion to adjourn - Dove 2nd - Vlasuk-question re getting paperwork out of donation box Roll call - Kevin - yes - Emmy - yes - Eleanor- yes Page 1 4