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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-10-07 Board of Health MinutesTown of Reading 'fCE C E I V E U Meeting Minutes TOWN CLERK F °ourc,..^"' 2021 NOV 30 AM A8 Board -Committee -Commission -Council: Board of Health Date: 2021-10-07 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Location: Address: Session: Purpose: Open Session - Remote Meeting Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Chair Richard Lopez, Vice Chair Kerry Dunnell, Paula Curren; Associate Members: Geri Cramer, Kevin Sexton Members - Not Present: Others Present: Staff: Interim Health Director Peter Mirandi, Assistant Town Manager Jean Cellos, Public Health Nurse Shuang Shen, Public Health Nurse Kristine Harris; Select Board Members: Vice Chair Anne Landry, Carlo Bacci, Chris Haley; Public: Nancy Docktor Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Jacquelyn LaVerde Topics of Discussion: This meeting was held remotely via Zoom. Chair Richard Lopez called the meeting to order at 7:01 pm and previewed the evening's agenda. Public Comment: Nancy Docktor of Pearl Street, and Precinct 1 Town Meeting member, asked the Board about the merging of Public Safety and Public Health with regards to Article 5 of the October 18th Special Town Meeting. The article seeks funding for proposed renovations to the Police Station to repurpose the meeting room into office space to be shared by the Coalition and Public Health staff. Ms. Docktor asked the Board how residents will access the Health Department, as they may have reservations about entering the Police Department to seek help for mental and public health, and what the new name of the building will be to include Public Health. Board members clarified that it is a facility move, and not a merging of the departments. The organizational change places Public Health under Public Safety, alongside Police and Fire, but it stands as its own department. The location move allows Public Health to partner with Police and Fire and work collaboratively with the Coalition by sharing the space. The private space is needed for both Coalition staff and Public Health staff to not talk about confidential matters out in the open. Select Board Vice Chair Anne Landry called the Select Board to order, as a quorum was reached. She noted that Select Board discussions determined there was insufficient community input about priorities on capital investments, but the Board chose to include the article on the warrant, though two members chose to abstain from endorsing it. Page I 1 After a lengthy discussion, Board members agreed that the point of access and the renaming of the building should be addressed. Dr. Lopez committed to speaking with Town Manager Bob LeLacheur regarding Ms. Docktor's concerns and the Board's thoughts. Staffing Changes: Mr. Mirandi announced that Health Inspector Daniel Markman has submitted his resignation. That leaves the Department with one part-time contract inspector. Mr. Mirandi stated that he has found an experienced inspector who would be happy to begin participating as a contracted inspector. The current contract inspector knows the codes and can apply them, but this consultant knows the next steps and can do follow ups on a fee- for-service basis. Ms. Curren expressed the importance of developing relationships with businesses. Ms. Dunnell asked is there were any Public Health mutual aid agreements to help with circumstances like this. Mr. Mirandi noted that an individual from North Reading reached out to help, but every health department at the moment is dealing with needs that exceed their capacity. A new Health Inspector, once hired, will be expected to build and maintain relationships with the businesses in the community. Dr. Lopez reminded the Board that at their meeting on March 18th, 2021, the Board voted to authorize the Health Director to contract services as needed, which enables Mr. Mirandi to contract services in the interim, until the Town can recruit and hire a replacement full-time inspector. COVID Related Issues: Current Pandemic Activity Public Health Nurse Kristine Harris provided the latest COVID case counts per MAVEN reporting: • Total Cases = 2,228 • Total Active Cases = 45 • Deaths = 50 • Transferred Cases = 10 • Recovered = 2,123 Currently, two cases are hospitalized, approximately 50% of active cases are breakthrough cases in people who have been vaccinated, and the primary method of transmission is household transmission. Schools There are 40 active cases in schools with no known in -school transmission. • High School = 7 non -vaccinated • Middle Schools = 2 non -vaccinated • Elementary Schools = 29 • Pre -K = 2 83% of eligible students are vaccinated, and 84% of staff is vaccinated. PALMED hosted a COVID clinic a week ago where 29 students were vaccinated. On November 3'd, they will host another clinic for a third dose for qualifying staff. School nurses continue to work hard on test and stay. Over 500 tests have been administered to 464 students. Trial pool testing is being done for high-risk staff. There is a potential cluster at the Christian Coop Preschool. Ms. Harris has conducted contact tracing for both classrooms, and they are being tested. Ms. Harris stated that she and School Nursing Director Mary Giuliana talk several times a week, and they collaborate on cases picked up through school testing and reported in MAVEN. Page 1 2 Ms. Harris noted that symptoms of breakthrough cases are milder than when COVID first started. She is also keeping track of reinfections, and who received which vaccine in breakthrough cases. At this point, it is still pretty even between the vaccines. The Board requested that Ms. Harris provide them with her weekly report, and update the website every two weeks with active and school case counts. Vaccine and Mask Mandates Dr. Lopez began the discussion on two issues: mask mandates and vaccine mandates. There are currently no mask mandates in Town buildings, except for the Library. There are 100 cities and towns in the commonwealth that have mask mandates for municipal facilities, including all communities in Region 3B. As of August 30th, only 45 municipalities have a universal indoor mask mandate. In Town Hall, 93% of employees are vaccinated. Most interactions are brief, there are plexiglass barriers, and social distancing is encouraged. Many Town Hall employees continue to wear masks even without a mandate. At Select Board, and possibly other meetings, many attendees are not masked, which raises concerns about sitting in a room with so many unmasked individuals for a number of hours. According to the state website, Reading's average daily incident rate was 17.5 in early September. Today it is down to 15.7, and continues to come down. The percent of positive tests has also come down to 2.38% today. For now, it seems Reading is on the downside of the summer surge. However, that could mean another one could happen. Reading also has a pretty good vaccination rate. Of the total population, 68% is fully vaccinated, with 80% of the eligible population fully vaccinated. The Board discussed whether or not a mask mandate is needed given the low activity and the high vaccination rates. Dr. Lopez opined that masks may not be particularly necessary at this point. Ms. Dunnell stated that she preferred the term requirement over mandate. She reasoned that Public Health is about prevention, and the Board should be thinking about what's ahead with fall and winter coming up and people spending time indoors together. Flu season is also coming up and RSV is also going around. Biobot is an MWRA project that evaluates the presence of COVID-19 in sewage treatment, and is showing another increase. The contagiousness of the delta variant is such that people are two times more likely to get infected, even if vaccinated. The medical system is also strained right now, and access to medical care is another consideration. Ms. Dunnell stated that at least the Board should strongly encourage people to continue wearing masks. Board members agreed that the public should be strongly encouraged to wear masks, and to continue to monitor the situation. The message can be distributed by posting on the Town website, doing a reverse 911 call, creating a flyer to give to area businesses that says that the BOH strongly recommends wearing masks in indoor places, and electronic billboards downtown. The Board can also follow up with Business Administrator Jayne Wellman to help promote the message. Dr. Lopez opted to defer the vaccine mandate discussion, as the Town has a high vaccination rate, and no other cities or towns are mandating vaccinations right now. COVID Website/Public Information Officer Public Health Nurse Shuang Shen reviewed information she received from Business Administrator/Public Information Officer Jayne Wellman about how other cities and towns are providing COVID information. Some websites contain COVID data, mask requirements, vaccination clinics, social media, and robocalls. Some towns have data with different age groups. Ms. Shen also asked other member communities in Region 3B. Some of them do have data updates and some do not. Reading has a COVID-19 information page with COVID data, case counts, link to the state dashboard, vaccination information, Mass. Mask requirements and social distancing guidance, mental health resources, and COVID information in different languages. Dr. Lopez recommended working with Ms. Wellman over the next couple of weeks to come up with a public relations campaign around masking. MAPC Proiect Update: The Board engaged the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) to assess the Health Department and try to understand its strengths and weaknesses, compare to peer communities, and make some recommendations on how to strengthen the department in its work of Public Health. Mr. Mirandi, Ms. Delios, and Ms. Dunnell were all interviewed. All expressed their positive feedback on the process, appreciation for Subject Matter Expert Pat Maloney, and their interest in seeing MAPC's report. Update Status of Health Director Position: Ms. Delios reviewed the process taken to date. The Health Director position was originally posted in May, and there were five applicants. There were two finalists, but the Town was not successful in hiring either of them. The position was reposted in August, and four more candidates applied. Some of them seemed good, but they did not have the master's degree the Town was looking for. The position was reposted again in September with some softer language around the master's degree to see if that could include the applicants that seemed good, and four more applications were received. The screening committee met and agreed to interview six candidates on October 13th. One of those applicants has withdrawn, three have been scheduled for the 13th, one will be travelling and will have a phone interview, and one candidate has yet to respond. Incident Command Update 8/30/2021: Dr. Lopez recapped the Incident Command meeting of August 30th. It was primarily informational. There was discussion around pandemic activity in Town and what is going on with Flu clinics. The new School Superintendent talked about plans for the new school year, which is now underway. There was a brief discussion about Chief Burns developing an After-Action report. Future Incident Command meetings will be scheduled as needed. Update Reading Coalition: Mr. Sexton stated that there are no real updates. The Coalition's next meeting is more of an awards presentation, so there will be nothing relative to crossover with the Board of Health. The Coalition hired a replacement Outreach Coordinator, Krystal Mellonakos-Garay. The job description for the Coalition Clinician has been sent to Board members in draft form Dr. Lopez asked members to send their comments regarding the description to Ms. Delios by Monday the 11th. Mr. Sexton also noted that the Coalition will be presenting the results of the Youth Risk Behavior survey to the School Committee on October 14th. He will ask Coalition Director Erica McNamara to attend the next BOH meeting on November 4th to present the results to the Board. Health Division Monthly Report: Environmental Page 1 4 Mr. Mirandi stated there were two complaints: one for a rooster, for which the owners did not have a permit, and roosters are not allowed in Reading due to the noise; and one for chickens, because a resident ordered six chickens, but received nine. The resident said she would re-home the extra three chickens, so Mr. Mirandi did not see a need for a variance. Other complaints include two for housing, and one for food service, though details were not available. Health Inspector Daniel Markman performed 16 inspections and one body art inspection. Contract Health Inspector Dennis Palazzo performed 11 inspections, one plan review and two site visits. There were visitors to Town Hall looking to dispose of mercury thermometers. However, Reading does not have a waste collector in place. Ms. Shen will connect with her networks to find out about mercury disposal and post the information on the website. Ms. Delios provided an update on the Washington Apartments at 625 Main Street. Thirty- nine families were displaced back in July when a flood in the building wiped out electrical service. The Town has worked with community partners, the State, and the non-profit Metro Housing Boston to re-house about half of the population. The other half plan to move back into their units when the renovations are complete. The property owners are doing their best, and while construction is not as complicated as originally thought, there are still concerns with supply chain and material availability. It will probably be closer to November before the building will be ready for people to move back in. Epidemiology Public Health Nurse Shuang Shen shared that the Town received the full shipment of 560 doses of flu vaccine. Planned flu clinics include: School staff on October 8th at Wood End School; Police Department the week of October 12th; and one for the public on October 26th at the Pleasant Street Center, for which the link has been posted on the website. Half of the Firefighters and Paramedics were vaccinated this morning, and the other half will be vaccinated on October Igth. Ms. Shen noted she was able to match resources with CVS and Tannerville so the Reading Housing Authority could organize a flu clinic on site. Emergency Preparedness Ms. Shen provided an overview of Emergency Preparedness Coalition updates. Mass Department of Public Health provides WebEOC training on a regular basis. A testing drill was conducted this past Wednesday afternoon, which Reading passed on time. The planner, EVE strategies, is preparing an after-action report conference scheduled for next February. The Massachusetts Health Officers Association (MHOA) is holding its annual conference on October 20th and 211t, which Ms. Shen will be attending. Health and Medical Coordinating Coalition (HMCC) had a first quarter stakeholders meeting on September 29th on the topic of "What did we learn from COVID?" Presenters shared what they learned, what challenges they had, and how they responded to COVID. Review of Minutes from August 19, 2021: On a motion by Dr. Lopez, and seconded by Ms. Curren, the Board of Health voted 3-0-0 to approve the meeting minutes of August 19, 2021. Roll call vote: Kerry Dunnell-Yes, Paula Curren-Yes, Richard Lopez-Yes. Next Meeting Agenda Items: Final Comments: Ms. Dunnell announced that she saw on LinkedIn that Associate Member Geri Cramer was honored by her company at an event for providing service at an alternative care site during the pandemic. The Board expressed their thanks and congratulations to Ms. Cramer. Page 1 5 Dr. Lopez announced that this is Mr. Mirandi's last meeting before he re -retires to Florida, and expressed his appreciation for all of Mr. Mirandi's great work during such a difficult time. The Board and Select Board concurred and expressed their thanks to Mr. Mirandi. On a motion by Dr. Lopez, and seconded by Ms. Dunnell, the Board of Health voted 3-0-0 to adjourn at 9:21 pm. Roll call vote: Paula Curren -Yes, Kerry Dunnell-Yes, Richard Lopez -Yes. On a motion by Ms. Landry, and seconded by Mr. Haley, the Select Board voted 3- 0-0 to adjourn at 9:21 pm. Roll call vote: Chris Haley -Yes, Carlo Bacci-Yes, Anne Landry -Yes. Page 1 6