Board of Health: May 25, 2021

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.

0:00 That’s the first time I’ve had consent to record. Yes, I got that on a work thing too. Are we ready for a motion? Yes. I’ll make a motion to accept the minutes from the manager. Second. Ms. Gottlieb. In favor. Ms. Hazlett. Favor. Dr. Belfbecker. In favor. The facility sticker rebate. Everybody saw the email. It was pretty straightforward. It was funny. That person was funny who wrote the letter. About her husband? I know her. She’s great. She’s chairing the Indigenous Peoples Makeback Program this year. So, just looks like they purchased two stickers and should have paid 25 instead of 80. So, anybody have an issue for refunding the $65? No. I’m sorry, the $55? No. No issue. So, I move to return the facility sticker rebate to her. I’ll second that. Ms. Hazlett. In favor. Ms. Gottlieb. In favor. Dr. Belfbecker. In favor. And I have a second one that rebate that I just got this morning. Hello. My family currently resides at 291B Ocean Ave. AKA 291 Rear. And I have three vehicles. We purchased three facility stickers, but my wife forgot to ask for a discount on one of them. Would it be possible to get a rebate?

1:39 So, it’s 291B Ocean Ave. And it’s a $55 rebate. So moved. I’ll second. Ms. Hazlett. In favor. Ms. Gottlieb. In favor. Dr. Belfbecker. In favor. All right, Andrew, we have a COVID update. All right, COVID update. So, our numbers are looking really good. As of May 21st, we had a total through all of time of 1,338 cases. That was only an additional two cases from the previous week of May 14th. So, we went from 1,336 to 1,338. We had four active cases, and we’re sticking to 31 confirmed deaths. Our average daily incident rate per 100,000 for the last 14 days is 4.9. Our percent positive for the last 14 days is 1.06. Again, we say green community. The one thing that I do want to kind of point out is the total tests over the last 14 days was 1,516. This is a very large decrease in the number of tests that are occurring on the, you know, over a two week period. During some of the height of the COVID, we are seeing, you know, always 4,000 cases. So, about 2,000 tests per week. The one thing that we just have to remember that as the number of tests that go down, which will continue to be, if we have positives, it might increase our percent positive slightly.

3:18 So, you know, we can continue to talk about that. But really, you know, all this information is going to be done on the state website. There’s really no more need for us to track it. Obviously, we’ll continue to be tracking everything. But, you know, we’ve put pushing out a lot of information. And at some point, we do need to kind of end this. And I think, you know, this Friday will be probably the last case report we do. Not to say that we can’t provide information if people are looking for information. For vaccination rates, we are doing very well with our vaccinations. Currently, we have 11,852 residents of Marblehead that are fully vaccinated. That’s 62% of the population. We have 3,216 people who are one dose away from being fully vaccinated. If you add those two together, that gives us 15,068 people that will be fully vaccinated. If we reach that number, that will be 79.16% of the community fully vaccinated. Those are very great numbers. You know, it’s great to see all these people get get out and vaccinated. We encourage people to be vaccinated if you’re unvaccinated. And obviously, right now we have a lot of 12 and up that are getting vaccinated in Marblehead. We have clinics, local clinics that you can get vaccinated at the Salem O’Keeffe Hockey Rink. And that’s currently on Tuesdays and Thursdays from three to six.

4:49 So we’re trying to hit that school age population, having the clinics after school. We’re not sure how much longer we will be running these clinics, but we will be having clinics the rest of this week. As far as a lot of updates go, so we recently had an update from Governor Baker. An effective May 29th, all industries will be permitted to open with the exception of remaining face covering requirements for public and private transportation systems and facility housing vulnerable populations. All industry restrictions will be lifted and capacity will increase to 100% for all industries. The gathering limit will be rescinded. All industries will be encouraged to follow CDC guidance for cleaning and hygiene protocols. So the face covering requirements. So this will stay in place for quite some time. So effective May 29th updated mass requirements. The Commonwealth face covering order will be rescinded. The Department of Public Health will issue a new face covering advisory consistent with the Center of Disease Control and Prevention’s updated guidance. Face covering advisory for unvaccinated residents. The Department of Public Health will issue a public health advisory effective May 29th that advises all unvaccinated residents to continue to wear face coverings in indoor settings and when they cannot socially distance.

6:21 Face covering requirements in certain locations effective May 29th, 2021 face coverings will continue to be required for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals at all times in the following locations subject to the exemptions listed below. Number one on public and private transportation, including on the MBTA, community rail, buses, ferries and airplanes and while in ride shares, Uber and Lyft, taxis and livery vehicles as required by the Center for Disease and Control January 29th, 2021 order. Face coverings are also required at all times in transportation hubs, including train stations, bus stops and airports. The requirement applies to riders and workers. Number two, Andrew. Yep. You let Joanne and she’s in your waiting room.

7:30 Is covering requirements in certain locations. Number two, inside K through 12 public schools, collaboratives, approved special educational schools, and as otherwise required by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, DESI. The requirement applies to students, teachers and staff. Number three, inside childcare programs, license or authorized by the Department of Early Education and Care, EEC, and as otherwise required by EEC or the Department of Public Health, DPH. This requirement applies to students, teachers and staff. Number four, and healthcare facilities and provider offices, defined as healthcare facilities or providers licensed or operated by the Commonwealth, including nursing homes, rest homes, emergency medical services, hospitals, doctors’ offices, urgent care settings, community health centers, vaccination sites, behavioral health clinics, and Bureau of Substance and Addictive Services, BSAS facilities. This requirement applies to patients and staff. Number five, in congregate care settings, defined as congregate care facilities or programs operated, licensed, certified, regulated, or funded by the Commonwealth, including assisted living facilities. Group homes, houses of correction, Department of Pression prisons, jails, residential treatment programs, and facilities operated, licensed, certified, regulated, authorized, or funded by the Department of Early Education and Care, the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Youth Services, the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Developmental Services, the Department of Veterans Services, the Massachusetts

9:15 Commission for the Blind, the Executive Office of Elder Affairs, and the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission. Additionally, the face covering requirement applies to emergency shelter programs, including individual and family homeless shelters, domestic violence and sexual assault shelters, veteran shelters, and shelters funded by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The face covering requirement also applies to approved private special education schools, which offer residential services and are approved by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This requirement applies to clinics, clients, and staff. Number six, in health care and rehabilitation day services and program, defined as programs or services operated, licensed, certified, regulated, or funded by the Commonwealth, and authorized under the agents of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, are one of its agencies. These programs and services include adult day health, day abilitation, program of all inclusive care for the elderly, psychological rehabilitation clubhouses, brain injury centers and clubhouses, day treatment, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programs, recovery support centers, and centers based day support programs. This requirement applies to staff and consumers. Number seven, care in the community. Community and home-based care settings where health care and home care workers, including personal care attendants, PCA, home health aides, and home care workers providing patient-facing care.

10:53 The face covering requirement applies to both the worker and patient when care is being provided. The following persons are except from the face covering requirement. Children five years of age and younger, persons of whom a face mask or covering creates a health risk or is not safe because of any of the following conditions or circumstances, the face mask or covering affects the person’s ability to breathe safely. The person has a mental health or medical diagnosis that advises against wearing a face mask or covering. The person has a disability that prevents them from wearing a face mask or covering, or the person depends on supplemental oxygen to breathe. So all these are listed on mask.gov. And then just today, Governor Baker files legislation to extend certain COVID-19 emergency measures. So these emergency measures to allow public bodies to safely meet during the pandemic and ensure public access to meetings. Governor Baker issued an executive order in March 2020 allowing these bodies to meet quorum requirements even if meetings were held remotely through electronic means as long as measures were taken to ensure the public with electronics access to the proceedings. The bill filed by Governor Baker today will extend these provisions related to the Commonwealth’s open meeting law until September 1, 2021, which will allow additional time to consider possible permanent changes to the open meeting law to provide for greater flexibility in conducting open meetings through reliance on electronic, streaming, or similar measures.

12:32 The bill will also grant municipalities authority to extend special permits for restaurants offering outdoor dining issued under the state emergency through November 29, 2021. Under an executive order issued in 2020, municipalities were permitted to use an expanded process to approve temporary permits for new or expanded outdoor dining and alcohol service. Without a legislation extension special permits granted under the governor’s order will expire 60 days after the end of the state of emergency. The legislation will also extend a protective protection adopted in an executive order that prohibits medical providers from being billing patients who have received COVID related emergencies and inpatient service for charges in excess of costs paid by their insurers. As filed, the protection would extend until January 1, 2022, at which time recently passed federal regulations that included protections for both emergency and non-emergency cases will become effective. So those are the two extensions. Any questions on any of that stuff? Yeah, I have some questions. All right ahead. All right. Number one, back with our own cases and all. I’m still in trouble with the fact that we’re giving a 79.6% for all parties because under 12, they’re not allowed to get vaccinated. So it’s giving us a false sense of security is my own belief.

14:06 And I think that we’ve discussed this before. All of us have discussed it. So once we reach the 79.6% does that mean we’re at herd immunity, even though we have people that are under 12 that are counted in that grouping? So Dr. Fauci is saying that herd immunity could occur anywhere between 70% up to 90%. So I’m unable to answer that question technically. But does he count under 12? Yes, he counts under 12. He’s not able to get the vaccine at all. They don’t even have a choice. Correct. But also herd immunity isn’t town by town. It’s much bigger regions, isn’t it? That’s correct. But we will then, I mean, in my head, I’m saying that we have herd immunity at this point already. We will have once they get their second vaccine. The other question is Salem also going to close. Not that I care about that much as just this point of information. Are they going to be able to get at the clinic open, stay open at the Tohkeef Center? Or is it going to be closed for Salem also, even though their numbers are not as good as ours? No, that will be a regional decision. So it’s based on the number of people that are walking through the door. And is it a viable vaccination clinic?

15:38 Obviously, you’d still be able to get vaccine through your doctors and through the pharmacies continued. But to really operate that facility, which is a very large facility, requires quite a bit of staff. So if we’re not getting the people walking through the door, it doesn’t make sense for us to continue. No matter where they’re from. No matter where they’re from. Those are the questions I had about our community. But now we have some about the governor’s regulations. Does anybody have something before I ask the others? Go ahead. You mentioned the Department of Public Health. Is that just the Commonwealth’s department? That is just the Commonwealth’s department. That does not include our local. And are we going to have any ruling on our own local department? We are not. Unless you choose to. So masks are not mandated after the 29th coming into our facility, into the offices. Except for the areas that I listed. So yes, not coming into the offices. Okay. Unless it’s a school office or, you know. But the town office buildings are there in the schools. Correct. So also. The. Private schools have their own guidelines. So they don’t fall under these guidelines. As far as masking. I would have to check with the state on that one. Okay. It was one other that I had.

17:21 I think that I am all set until I find out the one other. But I can’t. Too much chicken scratch here. I’m sure. What you said, Andrew, about. You went through it quickly and I was confused what you were saying about. Virtual meetings. So essentially virtual meetings will be extended until. At least September 1st, 2021. Otherwise it was scheduled to be over June 15th. And what, what’s the. If you wanted to meet in person, is that. Is it. Are you allowed to meet in person? Yes. After Saturday. Yes. Saturday. Yep. So if we chose to have an in-person board of health meeting after Saturday, we could. Yep. Nope. You don’t have, you don’t have to require masks. You don’t have to socially distance yourself. You can fill up a room just like we used to. Okay. So I think that the. It’s not my purview, but I think the. Board select when having their first in-person meeting tomorrow. It’s not in person. So the, the selectmen are going to be in person. But the attendees will be on zoom. Like the school committee has been doing all along. Like the school committee has been doing. Yes. It just. I’ve just been doing the last few months.

18:52 Yeah. I think that’s a good point. I think that’s a good point. Because before COVID what we’re doing right now would have been against open meeting law. But they give the waivers last year. The. Right. So we could do this and other people could too. Good. Is that. Well, I just want to say that we’ve come a long way. To work. To coin a quote or to quote a coin. Quote. However one says it. It’s been a tremendous long way. It’s been a very, very long year. And several months for a lot of people. For everybody. I still have to congratulate you for. And your staff for all that you’ve done to keep this town. Open and moving. Thank you. And we’re not done yet because. Especially families with kids under 12 can’t let their guards down yet. Right. And obviously, you know, there’s a lot of things that we’re still waiting on. And we’re hoping that there’ll be an additional authorization for. People under 12. You know, hopefully it will drop all the way down to potentially the agent too. So we’d like to see as many people vaccinated in those age groups as possible. And then obviously there’s going to be a lot of discussion about in the fall. The potential of a booster. And what does that look like? And how does that get rolled out? And the booster, I mean, if it’s discussion in the fall,

20:22 the booster would be with a discussion would be six months after most people started getting it. So. There would be just going to be quick. Yeah, that would be quick to get a booster or to be saying a booster after a year. There’s no, they don’t know yet. Correct. We have not seen any guidelines on that yet. Is that your report? That is my report for this evening. Michelle, you’ve got a. Thank you. You’ve got a quick update for the mental health task force, right? Yeah. So we had a little. Snafu with regard to posting for the last meeting. So we were unable to meet. So the mental health task force will be meeting on Tuesday, June 1st. We’re not meeting on Monday due to the Memorial day holiday. So we will be meeting on Tuesday, June 1st at 7.30 PM. Seven PM. Sorry. So. We will be meeting on Tuesday, June 1st at 7.30 PM. Seven PM. Sorry. Seven PM. Tuesday, June 1st. And I will send you the agenda. Andrew’s that we can post for that. Perfect. And we’ll post that right away. Thanks, Michelle. Do you have a director’s report? Yeah. So the biggest thing for the director’s report is that we have a household has this waste. This is a residential collection event. So we’re following the same structure that we have during COVID. You will sign up online.

21:54 You will pay online and we’ll come directly to your home to pick it up. So this event will not occur at the transfer station, which it has in years past. This is a residential collection event and we will come right to your home. So in the form, you’ll tell us how much waste you have. You’ll pay for it with the credit card. You’ll tell us exactly where you’ll put it next to your garage in front of the garage on your front porch. This is not a curbside collection event. So it needs to be kept on your property, close to your home, under your control. We ask that you put the material out that morning. So just before 7 a.m. You put the material out and we will come around. The company is ACV to collect the material. They bring it all back to the transfer station. They repack it and they ship it all out. But these events go really well. We’ve had quite a bit of, you know, each event has around 100 people that have participated. The great thing about this event is that it actually allows us to do more events during a calendar year. Usually we’ll do two events, one in the fall and one in the spring. With this program, we’re able to do it quarterly. So we’re actually able to serve more people and we’re actually able to serve a greater number of people because in the past, we’ve had a lot of people that worked on Saturdays were unable to come to the event. And this way you’re allowed to leave the material there and go to work if you have to and we’ll pick up the material right at your house. So again, the event is June 9th.

23:26 The information to sign up is on the town’s website. If you look under the news, it has a link right to the website and you can pick that, you know, sign up for the collection event at that time. They’re just coming in the morning or all day? They come all day. So you have everything up by 7 a.m.? Yeah, it’s required that you have everything up by 7 a.m. Do you foresee going back to the in-person ones at the transportation or is this pretty much replacing it? I do not. You know, as long as DEP is happy with this, this is something that we will continue on. Like I said, there’s a large benefit to the community where we can do this event more often, so quarterly. And there’s actually a reduction in cost for us. It’s the same cost for the residents, but it’s a reduction in cost for us. And all the other items that you can, you know, you would also recycle that during the household hazardous waste day. You can still continue to come to the Marblehead Transfer Station with a facility sticker during the year to get rid of all your extra stuff. Tires, batteries, propane tanks, I will take all that stuff on a regular basis, or we do. Do you anticipate to be working that day for it? Or do you have the time to yourself? I will be working that day, G-9th. Yeah, so I don’t really have to do anything. I see them set up in the morning, and the event occurs during the day, and I’ll probably check in with them at the end of the day, but that’s really about it. So you still have to be on call, though?

24:57 Yeah, yep. But that’s easy. We’re always on call. And that’s really it for the Director’s Report. Okay. We signed our beach permits, so that season’s starting officially, right? Yeah, so beach sampling will begin June 9th, Wednesday Collection as normal, and this will run all the way through, I believe, the end date is September 15th. And we will continue to take samples from the Village Street dock and Sunset Pier on an alternating basis, just to give additional, some samples in the Salem Harbor side. But we’ll make sure we capture all the bathing beach samples on a weekly basis, so the permitted beaches on a weekly basis. So yeah, it’s exciting to get into summer activities, and water sampling’s always a fun activity. It’s a great service. And then I just learned today, the office will be closed Friday, June 18th, in honor of Juneteenth. So this is the first time the state will be observing this holiday, and so we’re looking forward to that. Is that sort of what it’s on its side? Yeah, it’s Friday, June 18th. The office will be closed. Current site collection will still occur on that day, so there will be no gap in service.

26:29 I think it’s a Commonwealth holiday now this year. It is. There’s an observance for Juneteenth. It slips my mind what day it is, but it’s going to be at Abbott Hall, and it’s going to be a very nice program. I was listening about it today. I’m sorry that it is not on June 18th, but I’m sorry it slipped my mind. Maybe I should look it up. So, I don’t know if you have anything to add. If not, I will open it to public participation. If you have a question, just raise your hand and we’ll get to you, or you raise your hand. Okay. And our next meeting is scheduled for June 8th, back to 7.30. Hi, Tom. We started at 7. And Tom, I’m sorry. I was busy talking, so I might have not let you in quickly. No, that’s stupid. But we can get you all the meeting notes. Yeah. So, yeah, June 8th we have, and then we have June 29th. That’s our June schedule. June 8th and June 29th, which is after the time of election. Are you going to be home anytime in June, Michelle?

27:59 Yeah, I was just home. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I was just home this past weekend and I will be home again the first weekend in June, but I will not be home. And then I’m coming home for the rest of the summer on the 18th. But I will not wait. So our next meeting is on the 8th. Joanne will not be at that meeting. She has an auspicious occasion that day. I heard about that. And then, okay, wait. So we’re not, we’re meeting. We’re not meeting on the 22nd. Correct. No. That’s election day. And then so we are meeting on. Okay. So then the 29th, I’m actually going to be out of town, believe it or not. But it’s, it’s not even my, I’m not even, it’s not even a meeting for me. So I guess there’s no in person meeting because I, unless we changed our meeting, I am, I know I will be, I’m flying back on the 7th because I was going to say I’m going to be in town, but I leave on the 7th to fly back here. So. Oh, well, I guess we are just going to have to be here the week of

29:30 election week. I am. I am going to, I am going to, I am going to, I am going to, I am going to, I may be here. I’m definitely going to be here on the 21st and I will be here to vote on the 22nd, but I may, and I don’t know if I’ll be at, do you think that we’ll be allowed to like go to town hall and watch the returns and all that? I don’t see why not. So I may or may not be here that evening or not. I’m not sure. So. You’re going to be, you’re going to be here the 21st, but for a week before that or what? The whole week before that. No, not the whole week. I’ll be here on the 18th and then. For the 21st. Yeah, the 18th and the 21st. I’ll be around. Okay. All right. So good. And then the, and then from like July 4th through August 21st. July 4th. Like if we want to, you know, get together and. See each other in person. I think that’d be nice. Yeah. Mark the end of an era. All right.

31:00 That’s helpful. Thank you everybody. So if you have a motion to adjourn. I’ll make a motion to adjourn. Second. In favor. Miss Haysley. In favor. Dr. Belspecker. In favor. Good night everybody. Hi Joanne. Wait.