INFO-2022-2 : Order for an Update on the Status of Covid-19 in Melrose (ID # 9548)

Transcript (~25 min @ 11:03)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 11:09 Speaker 3: dash to order for an update on the status of covert 19 in Melrose okay and

▶ 11:17 Christopher Cinella: if there is a no objection at this time I'd like to suspend our rules so that we can allow director chow to come forward this evening and seeing there's no objection excuse me i'd like to see consideration for the order i got a little ahead of myself there

▶ 11:34 Christopher Cinella: media considerations before us if there's no objection okay we are now going to see this matter tonight the floor is all yours director

▶ 11:45 Speaker 6: uh thank you everyone um thank you all the counselors for having me here tonight

▶ 11:50 Speaker 6: um i'm just here to give an update on the covet situation um in melrose and so currently uh in melrose just like a lot of our surrounding communities we've been seeing a surge in covid cases omicron has accounted for anywhere from 59 to 70 percent of all active cases of covid currently omicron is the newest variant or one of the newest variants that we are aware of in terms of limited testing we've been seeing that omicron has taken the majority of cases here delta

▶ 12:22 Speaker 6: is still also prevalent as well with omicron variant we've been seeing that infections have been slightly less mild slightly more mild than previously previously seen in delta however it is still we're still seeing hospitalizations from the infection and we're still seeing folks struggle with it so we still want everyone to understand that you know COVID is very serious

▶ 12:46 Speaker 7: there's a notion out there that you know COVID may not be you know as serious in terms of

▶ 12:51 Speaker 6: disease course but we are saying that it is still something to be aware of and something to keep

▶ 12:56 Speaker 6: protected at all times for melrose we are in very good shape in terms of vaccination one of our strongest tools against covid in most age groups we are over 80 percent vaccinated in melrose so i will say most of the melrose residents have been doing a good job staying up to date with their vaccinations if we're looking at the percentage of boosters we could we have some room for improvement there most of our groups right now that are eligible for the boosters it's 12 to 15 being the most recent most of the groups are hovering somewhere between 50 to 60 in terms of getting their boosters and the younger age groups from 16 to 19 and 20 to 29 are still

▶ 13:39 Speaker 7: somewhere between 32 to 35 percent vaccination for boosters so as part of our efforts to

▶ 13:43 Speaker 6: combat COVID in the city we are going to be promoting the vaccine and the booster throughout we'll be working with the state to provide more booster clinics and more first and second shot clinics to make the availability higher for all residents the other measure we've taken throughout the city to make sure that we're protecting the most we can against COVID is that we've installed a mask man indoor mask mandate recently and so with the with the reinstallment of the mask mandate we're hoping that we'll be preventing spread and we've been trying to get the message out in terms of mask quality as one of the things that we want to make sure folks understand cloth masks by themselves are not very useful in preventing transmission and so we've been asking people if they can to get the three ply surgical masks or the kn95 or n95 masks when used in combination the three ply masks and cloth masks are a good combination to use protect against COVID KN95 and N95 are also established as good options to prevent COVID spread

▶ 14:49 Speaker 6: in terms of positivity rate we're currently at 13 percent positivity rate in Melrose we haven't seen these kinds of numbers since towards the beginning of the pandemic these are very high but in terms of prevention we've prevented a lot of hospitalizations because we've had a lot of people vaccinated and we want to make sure that everyone understands the current numbers as they stand they're actually an undercount and so we've been seeing a flourish of antigen tests at home due to

▶ 15:21 Speaker 7: both a shortage of pcr test availability as well as the increased availability of antigen tests

▶ 15:23 Speaker 6: at home so the results that are found at home are not immediately reported to the state and so without any kind of reporting mechanism we can already account for a lot of tests especially

▶ 15:40 Speaker 6: in the school environment because we are keeping track of those a lot of at-home tests are going going unrecorded so we want to make sure that everyone understands that even though

▶ 15:49 Speaker 7: we have a high positivity rate right now we are under counting to a certain degree

▶ 15:54 Speaker 5: thank you do we have any questions councilman thank you mr president thank you mr

▶ 15:57 Leila Migliorelli: toy for being here today um i think you know while the majority of the conversation the community has centered around the schools i really appreciate you coming tonight to talk specifically about the city and i know you'll be tomorrow night at the school committee meeting so we can cover that topic there um i was just curious there's a lot of been there's been some statewide efforts um to help municipalities come combat uh covid and has the city procured um antigen tests through the statewide program that I believe is offering them in bulk at a reduced rate so we're actually in the

▶ 16:30 Speaker 6: process of purchasing the at-home tests we're looking at different vendors to meet the city's

▶ 16:39 Speaker 7: needs and so we'll most likely have some combination of tests through different vendors

▶ 16:43 Leila Migliorelli: in the near future do you have a sense of how many you'll be ordering and for whom so we're

▶ 16:46 Speaker 6: still looking at the minimum order sizes we want to make sure that we're ordering I don't have an

▶ 16:49 Speaker 7: exact count right now as to how many we're going to have but we're going to once we do we're going to create a plan for distribution okay great thank you um given that as you mentioned that

▶ 17:00 Leila Migliorelli: uh ki-95 not n95 and the medical grade masks are what you're recommending has the city purchased any of those in bulk particularly for city city staff for the public at all so we've worked both

▶ 17:17 Speaker 6: in the purchasing realm we purchased some and we've also received materials from emergency sites

▶ 17:24 Speaker 7: and so we do have a supply of masks that we first distributed to businesses in the community after the mask mandate was put into place but also for city for city staff as well we're providing masks

▶ 17:34 Leila Migliorelli: as well for them and are city employees able to reorder those are they like do you have a sense of the distribution of whether all departments have access to those masks so all departments

▶ 17:42 Speaker 6: do have access to them if they have trouble accessing masks they come to us and we can

▶ 17:46 Speaker 7: provide masks in the meantime each department is also able to place orders for them as well

▶ 17:56 Leila Migliorelli: so we're providing an avenue for that as well okay um are there any just one quick question um are there any other restrictions that you're considering citywide besides the mask mandate

▶ 18:08 Speaker 6: not at this time we're looking we're looking at other communities obviously the big one is boston

▶ 18:10 Speaker 7: we've seen you know we've seen a vaccine mandate go into place there other communities are considering it at the moment we are just looking at our options to see what other communities we can help support in the area as well so we're definitely taking a look to see if we can

▶ 18:26 Speaker 8: implement other things thank you no further questions i'll let others ask all right and

▶ 18:28 Christopher Cinella: just uh to be conscious of uh the director's time i do believe you have a seven o'clock wakefield meeting downstairs remote but uh counselor Jamaleddine thank you um mr president

▶ 18:40 Maya Jamaleddine: thank you mr choi for being with us today um i wanted to thank you for all the amazing work that you've been doing for our city and our residents what is you mentioned that we have an 80 percent rate of vaccinated residents do we know what is the rate of vaccination for our city

▶ 19:08 Speaker 6: employee for city employees we do not have that count right now and so we're looking internally

▶ 19:13 Speaker 7: to see if we should be collecting that data and making that more widely available at least within the city to understand what the dynamics are and so we're looking at collecting that data okay and

▶ 19:25 Maya Jamaleddine: so and we're not mandating vaccination for our employees right not at this moment though okay

▶ 19:36 Maya Jamaleddine: so for instance if i call um just you know like i can go to any service like city service or i call for any i there is not a guarantee that the person that i am dealing with is vaccinated

▶ 19:55 Speaker 7: uh so you're referring you're referring to city employees at these at these city events

▶ 19:58 Maya Jamaleddine: yes so they're uh for instance if i'm just given an example here for instance like uh police officers if we call them i had something at home and we need uh that service they can just walk

▶ 20:16 Speaker 6: into my house and they're not vaccinated yes um hypothetically if if there was a city emergency

▶ 20:18 Speaker 7: or a city event um we can't guarantee that the that the individual is vaccinated and are we

▶ 20:24 Maya Jamaleddine: mandating a mask for the city employees in case they are going to have that service for all

▶ 20:34 Speaker 6: residents yes so we are mandating masks for when they enter another residence or they enter a

▶ 20:36 Speaker 7: property they should be masked at all times that is part of the mask mandate okay when we receive

▶ 20:44 Maya Jamaleddine: hopefully that order for the antigen tests do we have a plan on how to distribute I mentioned you just mentioned that you know you will be working on that plan are we taking into consideration how to share you know distributed to elderly especially that you know we know that we are able to always get around and be able to purchase it online but with our elderly it's going to be a struggle finding it and educate them on how to be able to do those tests at home take those tests at home and if you have a plan on distributing those tests also to house of worship

▶ 21:32 Maya Jamaleddine: um that would be centered for a lot of different populations yes so um currently we are working on

▶ 21:38 Speaker 7: a distribution plan that will both be equitable and reach those folks that may not have access readily and so seniors are one of them we want to make sure that we're working with our resources in mystic valley health we're working with our social worker capacity and council on aging we want to make sure that seniors have the ability to access these tests and the ability to use them correctly and so we'll be working closely with council on aging to make sure they have access

▶ 22:03 Maya Jamaleddine: to that so is it going to be through nurse specific nurse that would educate our older

▶ 22:12 Speaker 6: adult or is it through just so we have a public health nurse we will be working so she does a lot

▶ 22:15 Speaker 7: of the efforts around the city in terms of general health education as well we'll be combining her efforts with the public health specialists we just brought on board and so with our public health specialist they'll be working on issues outside of substance use as well that was the original position but i think in combination those two will be able to help us reach these groups and also help with the education piece okay thank you counselor Grigoraitis thank you

▶ 22:41 Jen Grigoraitis: mr president thank you for being here tonight all in the interest of time i'll save all the pleasantries um so kind of what i'm hearing from you is we continue to focus on three prongs masking testing and vaccines so and i do know while we're talking about the schools tomorrow night and that's certainly not the purview of this body that right now melrose public's any adult who enters melrose public schools to work which includes both our teachers but also members of dpw who are custodians there members of melrose police who are school resource officers and your staff who are school nurses must either show proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing so can you help me understand why we have that in place in the schools but not in the library where kids under five go or the senior center where our elders go kind of how from a public health perspective you see those as different situations i think i think you make it i think you make a really good point

▶ 23:33 Speaker 6: there and so we're we've come up to a point where we're separating the schools and the community

▶ 23:40 Speaker 7: and i think one of the conversations that we're having especially internally is whether or not

▶ 23:47 Speaker 7: that's sustainable and i think as part of as part of our community i think we need to look look to mandate at least the vaccination information and make sure that we understand what that looks like within city hall and within our employees and so that's one that's definitely one of the conversations we're having right now is to see if we can get that if we get that information and also looking to see what a vaccine mandate might look like is there a timeline for a decision

▶ 24:06 Jen Grigoraitis: just i mean we're in i mean we're at 13 positivity i think any decision at this point will probably be too late for omicron but for what comes next or are we as you're hiring a new public health nurse are we asking that person to be if they're vaccinated um before they come in to work on covid

▶ 24:26 Speaker 6: mitigation sorry uh i think i missed the last part did you say hiring a new public health there's a

▶ 24:29 Jen Grigoraitis: posting for a covid nurse right now yes so the covid nurse position is a school specific uh

▶ 24:34 Speaker 7: it's kind of like a floater nurse position in normal terms so um yes so we will be looking

▶ 24:43 Speaker 7: at vaccination status for new hires we'll also be looking at vaccination status of current employees as well and we're in terms of a timeline we're in conversations right now I don't believe we're going to be you know dragging this out much further because we have a 13 percent vaccine positivity right here in Melrose and so this is definitely a priority for us okay great and I just

▶ 25:01 Jen Grigoraitis: have one more question I know we're out of time close to being out of time but going back to the question about if you're planning to put other mitigation efforts in place in the community so we're about to head over to memorial hall which i believe is the largest public space in the city where there's a capacity limit um but that's not something that we're implementing citywide at this

▶ 25:23 Speaker 6: time not at this time we're not looking at capacity limits for the moment um if you know

▶ 25:25 Speaker 7: we're looking at the data each day to see if it's you know if it warrants us looking at capacity limits and other measures that we can take to protect the city but this time i believe the mask mandate and with all the other tools that we have um we're in a good spot so we'll continue to

▶ 25:44 Speaker 5: reevaluate the data as it comes in thank you counselor stewart thank you mr president thank

▶ 25:46 Robb Stewart: you for being here uh this evening i just i do want to commend all the work that you're doing it's great um and so i do say with the utmost respect that i wanted to provide a little bit of feedback based on some feedback that i've gotten from other constituents mainly parents that you exercise some caution and be crystal clear on the communication when there's any change to policy particularly with the students were a lot of us are parents here as well and when email and information comes out that isn't clear it can cut it can create a lot more noise than if it's totally clear so I just ask that you and if you need help with the communication there's a lot of people in the administration a lot of people that are good at communicating here uh there's help there for you but um just please uh i would ask that that that communication come across crystal clear so that way you know no matter what faction or how people are going to communicate they understand exactly what that changes okay yes absolutely

▶ 26:54 Jack Eccles: thank you mr president counselor echoes i'll be i'll be really quick i just um you had mentioned that you were considering asking new applicants that's not something that's going on right now their vaccinations it is not currently no okay one one concern i have is with you know the statewide or boston terminating or placing employment employees on leave melrose becoming a place where people who aren't vaccinated feel comfortable to come work and i'd like to see melrose be a place where everyone who works here feels safe and works with people who they can trust are vaccinated

▶ 27:27 Mark Garipay: yeah thank you uh i'll be quick um appreciate you being here just one quick question how does the process work in order to get the vaccines for the vaccine clinic do we have one are we working on another one for a clinic in a booster if you can just explain that process for the state sure so

▶ 27:45 Speaker 6: we're trying to find a balance in terms of providing clinics as well as working with the

▶ 27:50 Speaker 7: state so we don't want to duplicate efforts in that sense the state has provided us a great

▶ 27:58 Speaker 7: resource in the vax bus and so the vax bus can be brought to each community depending depending on on how many doses we're anticipating we'll be giving out, and then we'll be working, you know, to get the communication out as soon as possible to get as many people aware of the VaxBus as possible.

▶ 28:10 Speaker 6: To speak to your point, the VaxBus has now come to many of our congregate living centers

▶ 28:13 Speaker 7: and our senior living centers, and so they've been able to bring the vaccine to some vulnerable

▶ 28:19 Speaker 6: groups.

▶ 28:22 Speaker 7: Our last effort, as you know, Counselor, you were there actually, and some of our counselors were there to volunteer we were able to provide just under 2,000 boosters for

▶ 28:29 Speaker 7: Moderna and Pfizer this was with the great help of volunteers and everybody but we are looking forward to seeing which boosters and which groups will be most will be at the most need moving forward and so most recently the 12 to

▶ 28:44 Speaker 6: 15 group was approved for the booster and so we're looking to looking to order

▶ 28:49 Speaker 7: that from the state and seeing if we can provide that with with the efforts of other communities as well so we're looking to collaborate with our surrounding communities put on regional events that may be able to reach more reach more schools and possibly share resources so we're not using our entire health department for one day each time thank you thank

▶ 29:12 Manjula Karamcheti: you for all you do thank you mr troy also just very quickly thank you i've been able to volunteer at many of the booster events and they've run smoothly it's a great team working together Just in relation to the 13% positivity rate, are you looking at like deeper analytics in terms of who that 13% is? Who is most at risk in terms of determining any extra supports or different kinds of supports might be needed?

▶ 29:40 Speaker 6: Yes.

▶ 29:42 Speaker 7: So the state data in some ways is very detailed in terms of race, ethnicity, and sex for a lot of these data points. So we're actually looking at that right now to see which groups may be struggling more than others. And so that kind of informs part of our decision-making and how we can reach out to those groups that need help.

▶ 30:05 Ryan Williams: Mr. Juri, are you considering any kind of public testing program?

▶ 30:10 Speaker 6: Yes. So we've been in discussions about whether or not we can work with the state to provide

▶ 30:14 Speaker 7: a resource that is Melrose region specific. currently a lot of our testing options are either private companies cvs walgreens or we're looking at testing sites like square one and saugus we are in discussions to see if we can bring bring

▶ 30:32 Ryan Williams: one like that i was just at square one for six hours waiting for a test a few days ago so that's

▶ 30:40 Jen Grigoraitis: what i asked just a quick follow-up question to testing i know we've asked the school students if they test positive on an antigen at home test to report that to the city to your earlier point about how under reported our testing is going is that something we're also asking residents who aren't school children to do so because to get an accurate picture of are we at 25 are we at 30 um and if so how do residents do that i just for our robust at home viewing audience which is probably

▶ 31:10 Speaker 6: five people um what i will say is um the the difference in the school environment is a lot

▶ 31:12 Speaker 7: more controlled uh we have a very strong avenue to reach them and to provide the google form and under which we collect this information for the general community us and the rest of Massachusetts

▶ 31:25 Speaker 7: you know we're struggling right now to collect that kind of data because if we're talking operationally MAVEN is our data tracking system and so this system helps us keep track of positive

▶ 31:37 Speaker 7: cases as well as close contacts for contact tracing the difficult part is we're actually not able to enter anything that is not a proctored exam or a PCR into MAVEN and so what we've been

▶ 31:48 Speaker 7: doing is when when there's a reported positive from an at-home test we've been following up with these individuals and providing the guidance and support that we would for a pcr positive that we can pull straight out of maven database however we can't do any close contact linkages because we don't have an avenue to enter them so currently we don't have a we don't have a database to keep track of antigen at home tests but we do reach out to those positives when they

▶ 32:15 Leila Migliorelli: when they let us know councilman just one quick question um you mentioned that the booster rate is about 50 to 60 percent and i know that people are looking and fully vaccinated is 80 but are we're looking at changing that fully vaccination return to the booster rate so or are using boosters to make people to consider people fully vaccinated is that something you are

▶ 32:36 Speaker 6: looking at or recommending for the city yes and so to be completely in line with dph and the cdc

▶ 32:40 Speaker 7: guidelines we're hoping to come up with an effective date so essentially we have to allow folks to have the time to get their booster before we change the definition to fully match the CDC and DPH but currently we are looking at complying with the state and the CDC guidelines in terms of

▶ 32:57 Speaker 7: fully vaccinated so that's individuals who have received the booster or are still within six months of receiving their last dose from the Moderna Pfizer two dose series or within two

▶ 33:10 Jen Grigoraitis: months of the J&J series thank you last one I promise I know one other thing that's proposed before the school committee tomorrow night is to change the after someone tests positive that after at day five of isolation they would need to provide a negative antigen test before returning to school for both students and staff is that something that we're also considering for city employees again the library librarian the person at the senior center to kind of show that to be more confident about when people are returning to work that we're they're not

▶ 33:41 Speaker 7: contagious yes we are considering that so we would consider so currently the

▶ 33:42 Speaker 6: data is showing us that after day five if you test positive with a with an

▶ 33:49 Speaker 7: at-home test you are likely still shedding the virus and so we would advise folks that test positive after day five anytime between day five and day ten that you would stay out in isolation until day eleven if you test negative then you are likely not shedding virus at a level that is detectable and so we are allowing folks to come back on day six if that's the

▶ 34:09 Jen Grigoraitis: case so right now people city employees even ones that are public facing are allowed to come back on day six regardless of there's no requirement to

▶ 34:18 Speaker 6: show proof of a negative test there is no requirement of proof of a negative test yet but we are having symptoms as kind of the barrier so if you still have

▶ 34:22 Speaker 7: symptoms we are asking folks with symptoms to stay home any further

▶ 34:34 Maya Jamaleddine: questions thank you are we offering city employee testing to the city like if someone any employee is symptomatic how are we providing the test for them is it through the

▶ 34:48 Speaker 6: city so currently we don't have any city-wide testing initiatives we don't have any pcr sites

▶ 34:51 Speaker 7: specifically with the city or with the antigen test right now we're in the process of ordering

▶ 35:00 Maya Jamaleddine: the at-home test at the service okay so we would leave it for them for the employees to go and get tested yes is there any plan of coordinating or collaborating testing with probably one of the you know the Meadows Wakefield Hospital since it's

▶ 35:23 Speaker 6: the city hospital yes so Meadows Wakefield has discussed the possibility

▶ 35:28 Speaker 7: of having testing testing capabilities open again and so we've been in conversation with them to see if we can collaborate on that okay perfect thank you okay um any other

▶ 35:38 Christopher Cinella: questions seeing none I know that you have to uh get down to your other meeting so you can you can be excused now you're already a few minutes late thank you for for coming this evening what is the

▶ 35:50 Jen Grigoraitis: will of the Council Councilor Grigoraitis I would motion to hold given the evolving pandemic so this would give us the opportunity to have Mr Troy back before us okay motion to hold made by

▶ 36:05 Christopher Cinella: Councilor Grigoraitis. Second. Seconded by Councilor Migliorelli. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, this matter will be held in full council. Communications from his honor, the mayor, and other city officials.