Board of Health: September 29, 2020

Transcript machine-generated with Whisper speech recognition (the source video has no caption track). No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:01 Well, it’s 7th area. We’ll call the meeting to order. All right. All right. Pull vote or go ahead, Todd. Do we need a pull vote to open the meeting? We haven’t… No, you’re good. You’re good. So let’s go to the meeting… Minutes are separate. I can’t even talk tonight. September 9th. We’ll start with that. Was that the one that changed before we voted on it, right, Andrea? Yes. Sorry, you did not change anything on that alone. Was that the one that… No, it’s the next set. It’s the next set? OK, sorry. I read them both and I know it. All right, I make a motion to approve the minutes of September 9th. I’ll second that. All in favor, Andrew? Pull vote. Miss Aislett? In favor. Miss Gottlieb? In favor. Dr. Belspecker? In favor. And we’ll move to the September 15th minutes. I have a question on this one and I apologize. I didn’t email Andrea about it because I was just confused, so I wanted to ask the question. Can somebody explain what… And I think I had a question last time and I don’t confuse about it, where it says, health slash safety equals, before going to school each day, parents should self-certify their children. Is that the questionnaire?

1:33 Yeah. OK. Can we clarify that? Well, did they get the change that we… That was what I had an issue with, too. Is that… Did we all get the final one? So it’s the health survey or the… It’s the health questionnaire, the daily health questionnaire, COVID questionnaire. Mm-hmm. And the wording I had asked Andrea to change. Instead of Andrea saying, there are 265 cases, I asked it to change because there have been a total of 265 cases. I don’t… The draft I have here, I just realized doesn’t have that change. Is that reflected, Andrea? OK. Yes, it is. Great. I did make the changes right away. Great. So is there a motion to approve to Andrea? I did not change that because we were just going to look at that. All right. So we’ll have to take a look at that. We’ll have to move that to the next meeting. Yeah, can we table that?

3:05 It seems that in the minutes it says that we’re to approve today, that it said several individuals in the classroom. It’s two or more individuals. Well, I can change that now. Yeah. We want to change it now and then… Yeah. All right. Well, then, under health and safety, I’m talking about the mobile unit. Yep. I did not pull up the minutes. I don’t have them in front of me. I have only my corrections. So it’s within a 14-day period. Two or more individuals within a classroom. They will… You have to report it to the mobile unit. OK. Yes, we’re a little bit muscled. I’m muscled? No, Andrea. I’ve never been accused of being muscled. Is anyone else finding Andrea muscled? Yeah, she’s a little… Yeah. You just need to speak into the microphone, but you’ll be good. I just want to make sure that John will capture you. OK, so we’re all good. So I changed that to two or more instead of several. After both? Yes. So I’ll make a motion to approve the minutes as amended. Well, excuse me, what about Tod’s? That was already changed. It was, OK. All right, thank you. I’ll make a motion to approve the minutes as amended.

4:37 I second that. OK. Yep, right here. Andrew? Miss Hazlet? In favor? Miss Gottlieb? In favor. Dr. Belfoecker? In favor. All right, COVID update, please, Andrew. All right, so we’ve had a total of 272 cases so far. That is a total of four more cases from last week. We still have approximately 30 deaths. We have a travel advisory so all travelers arriving to Massachusetts, including Massachusetts residents returning home, are instructed to self-quarantine for 14 days, accept travelers from Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Vermont, and Washington. So you’ll notice that this is changing every week. So we are updating that and just making sure that’s reflective. Please call the Marblehead Health Department to report contact with positive cases. So I also pulled up the case count for the state from last week. And just to kind of give you some additional, so online sometimes we have some questions about the number of tests that have been completed in a two-week period. So this is information from last Wednesday. So Wednesday, September 23rd. So at that period, the case count was 269. That was a day after, or two days after we had released our case count. We had gone up slightly so we are now in the green.

6:10 A total test completed are 8,292. And for that period, so for two weeks before last Wednesday, a total of 1,085 tests had been completed. So quite a few tests in a very short period of time. So obviously the more tests that we have, the better, that gives us a really good indication of the virus in the community. So if you are having, you know, showing any symptoms, remember to speak with your physician and get tested as soon as possible. The governor released some new information today. We are in the process of transitioning to step two of phase three for lower risk communities, and that begins October 5th. So I could just read kind of what was released from Governor Baker’s office today. The Baker Political Administration today announced that effective Monday, October 5th, lower risk communities will be permitted to move to step two of phase three of the Commonwealth’s reopening plan. All other communities will remain in phase three, step one. Governor Charlie Baker also issued a revised gathering order. Industry specific guidance and protocols for a range of phase one, two, and three businesses will also be updated. Phase three, step two. This goes on to where we were.

7:41 So effective in a lower risk communities are defined as cities and towns that have not been a red community in any of the last three weekly, Department of Public Health weekly reports. Effective October 5th, a limited number of sectors will be eligible to reopen with restrictions in step two of phase three for lower risk communities only. Outdoor performance venues will be permitted to open with 50% capacity with a maximum of 250 people. Outdoor performance venue capacity will increase to 50% with a maximum of 250 people. For arcades and indoor and outdoor recreation businesses, additional step two activities like trampolines, obstacle courses, roller rinks, and laser tag will also be permitted to open and capacity will increase to 50%. Fitting rooms will be permitted to open in all types of retail stores. Gyms, museums, libraries, and driving and flight schools will also be permitted to increase their capacity to 50%. The revised gathering order. The limit for indoor gatherings remains at a maximum of 25 people for all communities. Outdoor gatherings at private residents and in private backyards will remain at a maximum of 50 people for all communities.

9:14 Outdoor gatherings at event venues and in public settings will have a limit of 50 people in step one communities and a limit of 100 people in lower risk step two communities. So let me explain a little bit about the outdoor gathering limit of 100 people versus the outdoor performance venue capacity which will increase to 50% with a maximum of 250 people. So the difference is that for an outdoor performance venue you are seated. You have assigned seats. So when you go to these outdoor venues you’re escorted to your seat. You’ll stay there. And that’s the difference between the outdoor gathering at event venues in public settings. Those outdoor gatherings in public settings where it’s limited to 100 people, you’re allowed to gather and mingle and stuff like that. So that’s the difference. That’s why we have these two different gathering orders. Anybody else have any questions regarding the gathering order? Go ahead, Tarek. No, you first. The one thing I have a question that I noticed was smaller gatherings that actually was on an airplane that they seat people forward and they’re not sitting them beyond the forward area and they could spread people out much more. Was there any, they’re going to have to still keep you at six feet distance or they’re just going to have the number of 50%? Airlines are four.

10:45 Well, I’m just saying I started an airline but I’m wondering what they’re doing in performances. No, so obviously the airline and performances are slightly different and they’re different categories. I know they are. I just noticed that they had people sitting way up front and they didn’t spread the people out. Now, is that something that they would do in the performance area? I mean, I’m just asking them to. No, if you would spread people out for an indoor performance venue, you would also be seated and spread out as much as possible. Well, that’s good to know because if we’re not spread out, if somebody chooses to go to one of those things, they can ask to be spread out. I mean, they should be required to be spread out. It’s not a question. So if you’re following the guidelines of the governor’s order, you always have to maintain that six foot of separation and indoor events where you’re seated. But obviously, the greater the separation, the better it is. Thank you. I didn’t mean to bring up the airplane but it’s the thing that I noticed and I just saw that people were being seated. Yeah. Okay. And it goes without saying that all these events, so you’re required to wear a mask, right? Yes. And even in backyard settings with greater than 10 people in your private yard, you’re supposed to be wearing a mask. So people should remember that. And yes, you’re supposed to be wearing a mask if you’re unable to social distance

12:16 yourself and you must be wearing a mask if you’re at any indoor event, venue, retail, establishment, restaurant, or anything like that, unless you’re sitting down and eating for a restaurant. So also, talking about the sitting down at the restaurant with the, now we can have 10 people at a table. Correct. So they, on effective Monday, September 28th, they have some new guidelines for restaurants, retail establishments, and indoor outdoor events, also started on the 28th. So for restaurants, you’re now allowed to have parties of 10. You’re also allowed to sit at the bar. Now that doesn’t mean you can have bar like service. It just means that they’re allowed to use that space. So they have to wordsmith some of the guidelines a little bit around the sitting in the bar area. So if I’m seated with my party at the bar, the next party has to be separated by us by at least six feet. It really is intended that a server come and serve my party. It’s not to have bartender service. So the bartender can’t be mixing drinks in front of us and stuff like that. He’s only really supposed to be coming within six feet of us if he’s delivering our food or drinks. So establishments need to be careful with that.

13:48 The other piece with the establishments are for restaurants is that you cannot use plexiglass to reduce the distance between seats of other parties. So just because you’re using plexiglass, you can’t go down to three feet. You still have to maintain that six feet. There’s been a lot of discussion about that in the last couple of weeks, a lot of confusion over that. And we need to make sure that restaurant establishments always maintain six foot separation between parties. And then retail establishments, you’re now allowed to use the changing room. That’s when they say the fitting room on this. Yeah, that’s exactly right. The fitting room, the changing room. What I was going to ask is about the menus. Because there’s a change room. So with the menus, you can now use a menu that can be washed. So a menu that’s sealed, so laminated, could be used. They just have to be sanitized between each party. Does it specify with what? It’s always so when we talk about disinfection in restaurants, it’s always a bleaching water solution per food code. Because that’s an acceptable way to disinfect. It’s the same with washing down the tables and the bar service and all that stuff. Really?

15:18 Bleaching water? Yeah, it’s always bleaching water for restaurants or quaternary ammonia. No, because I sat down once and the table was wet. I asked if it was bleach or whatever. No, no, we’re just using sanitizer. Well, that is not right. Well, it could be quaternary ammonia, which they call sanitizer. Okay. Yeah, but yeah, restaurants are only allowed to use certain sanitizer. We test the sanitizer when we’re there for inspections and all that. But so that’s what is applicable and under the food code. So they don’t have to use the disposable menus anymore? They do not have to use the disposable menus anymore. Well, can they give you a paper menu and reuse it or only reuse the… No, they cannot use a paper menu and reuse it. Only reuse the ones that have been laminated. Correct. Something that is cleanable. Something that’s able to be sanitized. Okay. Okay. The state has also put out some Halloween guidelines. The North Shore Directors of Public Health are also working to build on those guidelines. The guidelines that the state put out are very generic. They don’t have a lot of great examples. So we’ll be looking to put out a one-page guidance document a little bit more about proper trick-or-treating, social distancing, staying within cohorts. What we don’t want is to have costume parties and large group gatherings.

16:50 So it’s going to be okay for kids to trick-or-treat. We want to get into a touchless delivery system for candy and stuff like that. Very similar to food code where it’s touchless delivery for delivery items or table service. So we will continue to work out on that and put that out as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Halloween’s on a Saturday this year. So that means it’s an all-day event. That is correct. And obviously, it was kind of be one of the bigger Halloween’s because it is on a Saturday. So yes, we will be working on some of those guidelines. Michelle? I think that is the kind of thing we should do like a code red about or something. It feels like, I don’t know, it feels like people are going to, it would be good to, I don’t know, what’s the best way to get messages out about that? The best way to get messages out about the guidelines is a code red. I have a question also. I mean, why are we even having Halloween? I can’t, I mean, this is because you’re not going to be able to stop it. And so if you said no trick-or-treating, you would have all these giant gatherings in people’s backyards and that’s what we want to prevent. And so you’re going to put up guidelines of how to properly social distance yourself between yourself, your group and the next group. You can group up to the house at a time. They’re talking about touchless delivery system for candy. So you could use a shoot where you’re six feet from the kids, dropping candy into the shoot with gloves on, all these different ideas.

18:22 What we don’t want is these large gatherings that would occur if you said no Halloween. Can you leave them out, can you leave the treats outside? No, you cannot leave the treats outside. It just comes into common bowls. I think it really makes sense to have as many uniform guidelines in place and get the word out and have people really embarrassed. Like, this is what we’re going to do. This is like the way we’re doing Halloween and having people prepared to do it in a safest way as possible. The good thing is that people can be covered up and they can be distanced. And if we can figure out how to distribute candy safely, then it’s one of the safer ways that people can do things. Andrew’s right. If we say Halloween’s canceled, then it’s a complete disaster and people start finding other ways around it. Well, I’m sure, well, maybe there are other ways, like age school having a Halloween. Distribution, no? No, we’re trying to prevent large gatherings. So you won’t be having like the monster mash at the coffin school this year because that would be a large gathering. So you’re trying to prevent that. So you could have different events where maybe you have like a scarecrow walk, very organized, where you have to take tickets and times and stuff like that. But everything needs to be as organized as possible trying to prevent gatherings.

19:57 So you want people to stay within their family, within a cohort as much as possible, smaller groups walking around, staying distant from each other, and then touchless candy delivery or sanitized proper delivery of candy to trick-or-treaters. Or maybe not candy, maybe something else that’s better for their health. Correct. You could get, you know, but all the same ideas at touchless or, you know, as low risk as possible. So it should be certainly bagged and sealed, something that’s… Is that something? What? No baked goods, stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, when we look at candy, it’s already sealed. Wipe down the wrapper and then open it up. Yeah, or just leave it for, you know, a period of time. So right now with the books, you know, they only need to leave books for 24 hours. The virus really isn’t lasting that long on surfaces that, you know, through more and more research. So if you can convince your kids not to touch anything for a period of time, that’s ideal. I mean, obviously the same standards should apply that, you know, kids shouldn’t be eating candy when they’re out trick-or-treating. I know it’s always hard, but, you know, we’ll try to remind everybody of the, you know, proper guidelines for trick-or-treating for this year. Tom, did you add your hand up? Yeah, I just wanted now, you said… So are you putting these out or these guidelines or a group of other health officers putting them out? I didn’t quite hear that.

21:28 Understand? So DPH, Department of Public Health, have put out some guidelines, but the North Shore, so we have a North Shore shared public health coalition is working on the guidelines also to make it a little bit more robust. Right, right. That’s what I didn’t quite understand. Right. Thank you. And like Michelle said, like we want it to be very specific. This is how you should be doing Halloween. You know, this is how you should give out candy. This is how, you know, all that stuff. It’s difficult for me to grasp that you’re going to a household that may have some people that are quarantined or whatever. I mean, are people going to… So obviously you should not be giving out candy if anybody in your household is sick or showing symptoms. So, you know, you should have your lights off. And then that’s when we get into the kind of touchless delivery system. If you go online right now and you can see some of these different ideas. So you can have like an eight foot long PVC pipe that you have on top of your deck and having it sticking out to your yard. And the kids are coming up to that and putting their bag in front of it. And the person at the house is dropping candy into it. So you’re staying six feet away from all these trick or treaters, but you’re able to deliver candy in a safe fashion. There’s been some other great ideas about ghosts on string and you can let the ghost down to the street and people can pick candy off of the ghost and you wind it back up to your house and stuff like that. People have gotten pretty creative with these ideas already.

23:05 But yeah, obviously you shouldn’t be going out trick or treating if you have any kind of symptoms or anybody in your house is sick. Obviously, if you’re quarantined, you’re supposed to be staying home. If you’re in isolation, if you are positive, you’re supposed to be staying home also.

23:25 And obviously, you know, so those are really the big updates. As questions come up about, you know, the outdoor gatherings, we’ll make sure that information is online. We’ll post all that stuff. Obviously, you can read all that stuff at mastov.com. One last question. October 5th, will the library be opened? Is that what it says? So libraries can be open. I’m not so sure ours will be open. That would be the decision of the director? No, that’s up to the library itself. The director? Yeah, to the library director. Yeah, that’s correct. Some of the other things. So as far as ideal testing, so we want to get people away from these quick antigen tests. The PCR is the preferred testing methodology. If you go out and get a quick rapid test in the antigen and it comes back positive, we’re going to ask you to go get retested with the PCR. So rather than getting these quick rapid tests, go right to the PCR. For the travel orders, it also talks about the use of a PCR. That’s the test that you have to get. So please take a look at that. The only other… So what they’re doing in the rapid test that they’re doing in Swamscot, which one is that? I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s a rapid test or if it’s a PCR.

24:57 It did not have any of that information in the article today. And then as far as fall sports go, obviously communities that are in the red are not allowed to participate. So the MIAA, which the schools fall under, is trying to come out with some more guidelines for fall sports in communities that go into the red. Is it going to be based on a two-week schedule, a three-week schedule? But they’re going to be working on that and they didn’t have any final information for us today. If Marvel has any games like with any of the people that are teams that are in the red, they’re not going to play them. That’s correct. And they’re trying to work out the exact guidelines for that stuff. Is it over a two-week period or is it just one week that they’re in the red? As soon as they come back into the yellow, can they start playing again? So that’s something the MIAA has to address.

25:56 And that’s it for COVID updates. Thank you. Tom, you have a question? What does the MIAA stand for? Mass Intercollegiate- Wait a minute. The Athletic Association. The Athletic Association. I was going to say, come on, John. You know. Alina, has there been any reopening committee meetings in the last week? No. We had one scheduled for yesterday, but obviously it was canceled. And then he scheduled, the superintendent scheduled for the 12th, and then that’s the holiday. So that was rescheduled. And the fifth, we did not have one scheduled because that’s the first day of hybrid classes for most of the students. So we’re going to be going a month until the 19th. And it seems that that may be the last meeting for the current reopening committee. So I don’t know whether that is going to hold or not, because it seems like it may be necessary for it to remain. So I mean, it just, that’s my editorial, I should say. It was stated by the superintendent that that could be our last meeting. So to get the rest to anybody. So we’ll know more later. Yeah. But I do have a meeting in the 19th. And then you can tell us about it. So I have some new business that I want to bring up. So Andrea sent out the town meeting warrant.

27:30 And there’s two articles that could be relevant to us. One is the leaf blowers article 25. The other is a sustainable marblehead article, which is number 29. So what I would like to do is put it on the agenda for our next meeting that we will draft and approve a statement for either of those, depending on what we decide. And I think that we should have something ready from the three of us at town meeting to be read. Town meeting for 17th. That’s correct. It’s on to 17th. Yep. So I would like to put that on the agenda for the next meeting and we can have a draft that we can talk about and then approve. Reed, is that going to be outdoors? It’s going to be under a 10. Oh, like it was before. Yep. And so again, it will not be live streamed. It will not be live streamed. Okay. So I have some kind of old new business. Go for it. It’s old business because it’s a letter and it’s new because you haven’t heard it. So I don’t know what you would call it, but we got a nice letter from the people at the transfer station. And I’d like to read it to you because it really was, they were very appreciative. Members of the board, what a nice surprise we received last Tuesday at the transfer

29:04 station from Maria’s hot coffee and big yummy muffins. Thank you for your kind and thoughtful gesture. We appreciate it. Mike, Chris, Ralph, and Kay. So I’m glad that they enjoyed it and it was very nice that they wrote to us about it also. Nice. We have to remember all our people. That’s what’s important. And we thank them and we thank everybody at the board of, at the health department. So we’d like to bring you coffee and donuts every day, but it’s impossible. That wouldn’t be so healthy for the health department. No apples. Yeah, not a bad idea. So let’s go. I got some other new business. Yes. I went to the farmer’s market last week and they are now allowing people to, to pick their own produce and bag it. And I said, well, when did this happen? And it had happened the week before, but I wasn’t there because it was a Jewish holiday. And I hadn’t gone. But he said, and Andrew approved it. I said, well, it’s the governor’s guidelines. Was that right? Was the governor, did the governor change the guidelines? Yeah. Well, I’m not too sure because swamps guys always let people pick the produce. Well, they’re not supposed to. You’re supposed to be following the governor’s guidelines.

30:34 And the governor’s guidelines changed from two weeks ago. Because I’ve been watching him each time and I haven’t heard that one. So the governor is now allowing people to select the produce at the markets. Yep. At the farmer’s markets. And so obviously there are different guidelines between farmer’s markets and in the grocery store. And so, yes, in the markets, you were able to handle the food all the time. In the farmer’s markets, they had restrictions on it. So we, you know, we made sure that the farmer’s market was fall in the guidelines. And yes, it shifted recently. And now you’re allowed to handle the fruits and vegetables. And put them back down and let somebody else handle them. That’s correct. Well, I just want everybody to know that. I guess that’s what happens in the supermarket. But I haven’t been there to know. And we always recommend that people wash their fruits and vegetables when they bring them home. And we always recommend that. So, question as far as social distancing. So handling produce and all, I guess you’ve been doing it in the stores. Does that mean that people can handle merchandise jewelry in a store now? I believe so, yes. They can’t handle like perfumes and things like that. But they can use the, there’s no samples. But I think they can now use… There probably is like single-serve samples that you can get.

32:05 But not like, you know, you have to like for each… Business, you really need to go and look at the governor’s guidelines for each industry. And this has been through all of COVID. So, yes, it gets very complicated. And they don’t always match up between industry to industry. But it’s always very important for… And it’s the responsible business owner, they’re responsible for going in and understanding the guidelines and making sure that they adhere to them. And as you see, it was different from, you know, a mile away from Swamsted to Marblehead all this time with the… farmers market, because they’ve been allowing people to touch the produce. But I was wondering if it then spilled over into the… into hard products in a store. And you say one should read the guidelines. Yeah. Okay. Is there any other business to bring up to anybody? Okay, so let’s talk about our next meeting. Should we go for two weeks again? So it should be the week of the 12th? I’m not free that Tuesday or Wednesday. I have some things I can’t get out of, but if you’re willing to do a Thursday meeting, I could do the 15th. I am kind of busy, but I… You can’t do the Wednesday? No.

33:37 And you think that that one day is Indigenous People’s Day? The 12th is… Yes. The 12th is… Yeah. The 12th is no school. Correct. But we do need to meet before town meeting, so which is the 17th? Do we want to just meet next week instead? And then we do that, and then we can meet the week of the 19th after my meeting, if we do a two-week session. So why don’t we plan on the 6th and the 20th? Oh, the 20th, there’s the Village School Open House, which I have no idea what that… Do you know what that’s about? I do not, and we haven’t talked about that. I’m not really sure how that’s going to work. Was that just in the main calendar, or did you actually get a notice about it? It was an email from the principal, but I kind of figured it was going to be a virtual, like somebody with a GoPro walking through the hallway. I don’t have any idea. Can you do that 21st? Next, it would be Zoom. You know, the way a lot of open houses are happening now is like people go into Zoom classrooms and that kind of thing. I bet you that’s what it’s going to be. Okay. You want to do the 6th? Can you do the Monday or the Wednesday? Yeah, how about the 6th and the 21st? I probably can do that.

35:09 I can definitely do the 6th. I’d like to get the two on the books just so we have them. Yeah, I should be able to. But you want to do the 19th? The 19th is fine too. The 19th is better for me than the 21st, if possible. It’s fine for me. Andrew? No, my schedule is so packed at night. I got all this traveling I got to do. He has to go from the living room to the dining room back again. What about all the clothes you have to try on the fitting room? Yeah, all the outdoor dining I got to do. Yeah, you’re going to call us from North Carolina, right? Yep. Okay, so the 19th. No, I’m sorry, the 19th. Yeah. Yeah, that would be better. It’s just I have to pick Asher up from somewhere, so it just would be better. So please do read those two war articles and we’ll talk about that next week. You want to have a statement? I’ll put you out something with Andrew and we can present it and debate it. Whether we want to make a statement or not make a statement also. Yeah, I mean, but I’ll bring something to the meeting. Okay. Because the article, the 25th, article 25, the leaf blower, that is a non-science based article.

36:44 It’s a convenience article. And we have discussed this at multiple meetings over multiple years. Right, but we could decide whether we want to make a statement or not. Yeah, I think yes, but in case we decide we want to, I think I’ll bring something bare bones. We’ll just and we can discuss it. What’s the date of the town meeting? Saturday, October 17th. At nine in the morning. So you better get up early, baby. I can’t. It’s not being streamed. Oh. What, unless I come back. What is the, we have a public participant. So I just didn’t know we wanted to ask. No, I mean, I brought it open to everybody before. Okay, I didn’t hear you, sorry. All right. So on that note, do we have a motion to adjourn?

37:51 Okay, is there a second? I’ll second. Andrew? Miss Hazel it in favor. Miss Scottly in favor. Dr. Belspecker in favor. Night everybody. Good night.