Board of Health

Office of the Board of Health City Hall 166 Boulder Drive – Suite 108 Fitchburg, Massachusetts 01420 978-829-1870 A Virtual Meeting was held on March 4, 2021 at 5:00 pm. Present: Stephen Curry, Director; John Bogdasarian, M.D., Chairman; Ian Murray. . Sam Squailia, City Counselor. Dr. Bogdasarian opened the meeting at 5:00 pm. COVID-19 Update/Discussion: Mr. Curry stated since March 1, 2020 there has been a total of 4,131 Covid-19 cases, 73 confirmed cases within the last week, 186 cases in the last 2 weeks. There are currently 132 active cases in the city and 136 total deaths. 3,863 people have recovered from Covid-19. The positivity rate is at 3.3% which takes us out of a high risk community category according to DPH. Mr. Curry stated there has been 25-30 recent cases due to an outbreak at Fitchburg State University. Most of the other cases are smaller clusters from households. Fitchburg has been appointed 2 liaisons from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health due to Fitchburg being one of the hardest hit communities. The vaccination flow was about 100 doses per week since the end of January and it looks like it will change as part of that initiative. There will be a clinic tomorrow (Friday, March 5, 2021) that is already full for 75+ seniors. There is 400 doses for that clinic. We are also still working on Phase 1 and will be receiving an allotment of vaccine for the CJ Durkin Building (Fitchburg Housing Authority) which will be 150 doses. Once received the BOH will do first doses there for staff and residents that want the vaccine. Wallace Towers 2nd doses were done last Friday. Mr. Curry stated he is hopeful they can tackle the congregate housing and continue on with clinics. We are expecting another 400 doses dedicated for just Fitchburg and not have to share with Leominster. We will be scheduling more 75+ year olds clinics then to 65+ year olds. There is also a waiting list on the City of Fitchburg website with roughly 1300 individuals on the list and we were able to get a number of those people for the clinic on Friday. The Governor announced that teachers will be eligible for the vaccine on March 11, 2021 so we are hoping to get an increase in vaccines so we can handle that demand. We have tried to create a regional vaccine distribution plan for the state as our area has been lacking in vaccine. This would be open to all Massachusetts residents. The new initiative with the 20 hardest hit communities seems like a better direction to go that way rather than join regionally with Leominster. The KMART site is about 15,000 dollars with utilities, heating and lighting. We will have to weigh out that cost. Mr. Curry stated with the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine we may get more vaccine and be able to take care of congregate housing and the phases thereafter. The March 5 clinic was set up with a link at 12:00pm today and all 400 slots were taken by 5:00pm. We are hoping to get more vaccine slots available. The goal of the 20 communities program is to try and reach those hard to reach people and there is a large population that is hard to reach, so we should be able to spend more time on those folks that are hard to reach and help stop the spread that way. The KMART building will be expensive and require a lot of staffing and work. Ian Murray made a motion to table the February minutes. Motion was 2nd by Ms. Knipe. All were in favor. Motion carries. The next BOH meeting is scheduled for March 11, 2021. Ms. Knipe made a motion to adjourn. Motion was 2nd by Mr. Murray. All were in favor. Motion carries. Adjourned at 5:45