Board of Health

BOH MEETING MINUTES 05-03-2021 Attending via TEAMS Conference Call Call # 1 617-433-9462, Conference ID: 499 316 017# Joseph Tennyson, MD, Chair Jim Griffin, Vice-Chair Phillip Short, Member Also in attendance: Director John Garside and Clerk Tina Nolin Meeting called to order 6:30 pm Reading and Approval of Minutes • Minutes for April 6, 2021 meeting: Vice-Chair Griffin motioned to approve the minutes and place them on file. Chair Tennyson seconded the motion; Board roll call vote was 3-0 to approve the motion. New Business • Discussion & Update of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Director Garside updated the Board on the recent activities of the Health Department regarding COVID-19. - Since February 2020, the City’s total cases are 4512; 4310 people have recovered, and 115 have passed. There are 42 active cases. The average over the past five days has been at about five new cases per day. Incidence per 100K people is 11.5; positivity is at 3.14%. The average age among active cases is 27 years. Our average age of active cases over the past two weeks has been 30 years vs. the range of 33-39 years that we were hovering around since last September. Twenty-six (26%) percent of the cases in April were 0 to 19 years of age vs. just 5% of the cases that were 0-19 years of age in April 2020, a year ago. The 60+ age makes up 7% of our cases in April 2021 vs. 27% of the cases last April (2020). The average age of our cases continues to decline. - UMass Memorial Hospital Marlborough, with support from the City continues to run a vaccination clinic out of the Courtyard Marriott. The clinic receives state vaccines and federal vaccines through their partnership with the Edward M Kennedy Center via the HRSA grant. Whereas Marlborough is in the area, EMK serves we are certainly eligible and taking full advantage of the supply available. It looks like supply is no longer a problem, but the challenge now is to get people to go and get vaccinated, particularly those who are hesitant. - The hospital administered 1787 doses out of their site at the Courtyard Marriott site last week. That is an average of 357 a day and roughly. Of the total number, approximately 804 were Marlborough residents, which makes up 45% of the total vaccines given, followed by Hudson at 13%, Shrewsbury at 4%, Westborough at 3%, and Northborough at 2%.  Board of Health Minutes May 3, 2021 p2 - The Health Department continues to spend considerable time messaging the importance of getting vaccinated through print, signage, social media, and in-person interaction through our COVID ambassadors, who have been out in neighborhoods, businesses, and residential communities promoting the Courtyard clinic. The Department has continued to do some homebound vaccinations, they continue to trickle in, and we also have about 50 second doses coming up. We initially administered the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for this program until the State briefly halted its use. We received the Moderna vaccine to continue the program, so we have second doses of Moderna to administer. - On April 23rd, we held a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Bethel Presbyterian Church with the help of UMASS’s Community Health Division. We administered 157 doses. Our involvement was to secure the location for that clinic, set up the event, do the pre-registration leg work, and send the paperwork to the UMASS team. The UMASS Community Health team then set up the appointments with the participants and administered the vaccine. - On April 14th, we held our last second dose clinic at the COA, where we administered 41 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. To date, the Department has administered 1763 vaccinations. This Friday, we will be doing a walk-in clinic at the Boys and Girls Club on Pleasant Street. For the event, we will be advertising by handing out flyers door-to-door in the surrounding neighborhoods and placing signage at local businesses and social media. - On Tuesday, April 27th, when numbers were last reported for municipalities, 50% of the Marlborough population had received at least one dose of vaccine, and 29% are fully vaccinated. Director’s Update - Update on Schools: Marlborough Public went back full in-person for all students who wanted to come back last week (w/o 4/26/2021). They reported that about 20% of their school population elected to remain remote in talking to MPS. AMSA went back to full in-person learning last Friday, April 30th. Assabet Valley goes full in-person starting next week, May 10th. - All schools have graduations outside in accordance with DESE guidelines. - Non-COVID-19 updates. The Department currently has two active TB cases that we are performing in the Daily Observed Therapy (DOT). The Richer exposure that happened in March – their second round of testing occurs in June. To date, there have been no positives related to that exposure. - This past month the Department filed a housing court case on a property located on Hosmer Street, related to the overflow of curbside trash that was well past one week’s amount. With the Court filing and court date in hand, they cleaned up the area before the hearing.  Board of Health Minutes May 3, 2021 p3 Subdivision Site Plan & Special Permit Reviews There were no subdivision site plans & special permits to review Unknow Business at Time of Posting There was no unknown business Scheduling of Next Meeting The next meeting of the Board will be on Tuesday, June 8th, at 6:30 pm. Attendance will continue to be remote via Teams meeting. ADJOURN Vice-chair Griffin motioned to adjourn the meeting at 6:50 pm; Chairman Tennyson seconded the motion; the roll call vote was 3-0 in favor to adjourn. Respectfully submitted, 06/08/2021 Dr. Joseph Tennyson Dated Cc: Board of Health Members City Council, City Clerk, and City of Marlborough Website