Board of Health

CITY OF SALEM BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING MINUTES Virtual Meeting held via Zoom and also Recorded by SATV June 9, 2020 MEMBERS PRESENT: Dr. Jeremy Schiller, Paul Kirby, Geraldine Yuhas, Datanis Elias, Sara Moore OTHERS PRESENT: David Greenbaum, Health Agent, Suzanne Darmody, Public Health Nurse, Maureen Davis, Clerk of the Board EXCUSED: Patti Morsillo, City Council Liaison OTHERS PRESENT: Kim Waller ATTENDEES ADDRESSED: Alan Hanscom, SATV TOPIC DISCUSSION/ACTION J. Schiller read aloud that, pursuant to Governor Baker’s orders, there exists COVID-19 Emergency Open Meeting Law Guidance regarding the implementation of virtual public meetings. 1. Call to Order 7:07pm 2. Approval of Minutes D. Elias motioned to approve the minutes. P. Kirby 2 nd. All in favor. (May 12, 2020) Motion passed. 3. Updates on COVID-19 D. Greenbaum said to date, Salem has 615 cases with 29 related deaths. He said our case numbers are way down. He is worried about the protests and the possible spread of infection. Phase II of the reopening started yesterday with restaurants opening for outside-only dining. D. Elias asked if restaurants will be using disposable menus. D. Greenbaum said they will be as they are trying to limit contact as much as possible. He said everyone will be using masks for the foreseeable future. J. Schiller again praised D. Greenbaum for doing a great job with communication, etc. 4. Kim Waller – Update on K. Waller said we are waiting for a vaccine to be produced. People will community testing model soon have access to antibody testing. Some of the testing models she spoke of were drive-through testing sites, such as CVS, etc. She presented a slideshow about how to reach at-risk populations, such as public housing, for testing. Testing sites would include registration, on-site testing, results and tracking population relevance. We need an understanding of the value of current testing, especially for asymptomatic people. There is an uptick of cases expected in the fall. Ambulance services could provide testing at public housing sites. Fallon Ambulance could do door-to-door testing, but HIPA is a concern. Fallon has experience with nursing homes, resulting and billing. It could be a resolution. A City testing model will take lots of coordination to do. 1|Page  Current tests being used have a 30% false-negative rate. These tests are only being used due to the current situation. J. Schiller asked if all tests get reported. D. Greenbaum said all test results get reported to the State, but we only get the positive results from MAVEN. He thinks once community testing begins, we will see a huge uptick in positive cases. It is still important to know where we stand as a community so we can isolate and protect ourselves. If we can get Fallon, we will get results which is what we want. J. Schiller asked if there is any community approach to testing. D. Greenbaum said not as of yet, but on Saturday North Shore Medical Center and North Shore Community Health Center are doing testing at the Point. The testing is geared toward the Point community because it is so densely populated. They have 200 tests. P. Kirby asked if we have looked into funding from Medicare. K. Waller said she is not sure, but CVS and Walmart on Highland Avenue have drive-through testing which is paid for by the government. Testing is available Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:00am–9:00am. People register online, drive up, show their registration and get tested. The cost of a swab test is currently $157.00, and the cost of a lab test is currently $100.00. P. Kirby suggested that maybe if people don’t have insurance, we could find a way to instantly check to see if they are eligible for Mass Health. K. Waller said North Shore Community Health Center is overwhelmed and cannot take any more COVID patients. The process is more complicated than it seems. K. Waller asked D. Greenbaum if we have PPE to distribute to the elderly. D. Greenbaum said we don’t have any PPE to distribute. K. Waller offered to inquire with FEMA about obtaining PPE. D. Greenbaum said that would be great. S. Darmody said at this time a doctor’s order is not required to get tested. K. Waller suggested we reach out to the Board’s physician for guidance. She said she would like a City contact person for Fallon for testing sites. Attendee Alan Hanscom asked about seniors who have been working at home and are being pressured to go back to work when they don’t feel safe. D. Greenbaum said the Attorney General’s office can help. The Board thanked K. Waller for her efforts. 5. Discussion on racial and health S. Moore sent an email to the Board with lots of resources related to race equity and health. She said Kerry Murphy, the City’s Health and Wellness Coordinator, has also been paying a lot of attention to this issue and provided her with some of those resources. It may be helpful to think of ways to solve the issue in our community. For example, there were no Spanish vendors at the Farmers’ Market. The Boston Public Health Commission has a working advisory group that put out a “Guide to Advance Racial Justice & Health Equity”. D. Greenbaum said the Mayor would like to form a racial equality task force. We can look into racial disparities in the community health assessment. S. Moore said she has experience researching community-based and community-partnered data collection. J. Schiller said he would love the Board to have more input and be more proactive in making change. 2|Page  S. Moore said there is a lot more to learn and we need to educate ourselves. P. Kirby asked if we have an MPH student that could help. D. Greenbaum said we had a Health Studies intern, but with COVID-19 the intern program stopped. He is not comfortable bringing someone from the outside into the office because there is not enough space. Maybe we could work with them remotely. S. Moore said she and Kerry Murphy can look into possible funding sources. D. Greenbaum feels a member of the Board should be part of the Mayor’s racial equality task force. 6. Chairperson Communications J. Schiller reported that there is a dramatic decrease in the number of COVID patients at the hospital. Unfortunately, lots of patients were staying away from the hospital for fear of COVID. Routine medical care was being ignored. We will see the impacts of that later. 7. Monthly Reports-Updates a. Public Health Report not available. Nurse’s Report Report not available. b. Health Agent’s Report c. Administrative Report Copy available at the BOH office. d. Council Liaison Updates P. Morsillo was unable to attend but sent a dashboard report by email to the Board about the healthcare-housing linkage. She wrote that the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board is also starting to look into the healthcare- housing linkage and thought the information in the report could be helpful to our racial and health equity discussion. S. Moore motioned to approve the report submitted. D. Elias 2 nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 8. New Business/Scheduling of Future Agenda Items J. Schiller asked about our social media accounts. D. Greenbaum said we are on Facebook and Twitter. S. Darmody updates them regularly. G. Yuhas asked which City events are cancelled. D. Greenbaum said everything is being looked at. We have to see how things go with the phase reopenings. MEETING ADJOURNED: P. Kirby motioned to adjourn. D. Elias 2 nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 8:32pm Respectfully submitted, Maureen Davis Clerk of the Board Next regularly scheduled meeting is Tuesday, July 14, 2020 at 7:00pm Virtual Meeting Via Zoom 3|Page