Posted on: Thursday, April 17, 2020
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD – There are currently 90 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Melrose and 141 in nearby Wakefield.
Ruth Clay, Health Director for the district that includes both municipalities, reported the latest numbers at last night’s joint meeting of the Health Boards for both communities held via teleconference.
Clay said that, unsurprisingly, a high proportion of the cases were in congregate housing settings like nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
She said that the National Guard is available to test nursing home residents and has been out several times to Wakefield and Melrose. They can test residents who are symptomatic and asymptomatic.
In Melrose, a quantity of paper masks in the Emergency Management stockpile have also been distributed to senior housing facilities. She said that Melrose has 20,000 masks on order, which are at least 10 days away from delivery. Several hundred cloth masks made by Melrose residents have been delivered to 101 households in Melrose.
She said that she is on regular conference calls with the state Health Department and the national Centers for Disease Control.
According to Clay, 20 nurses, including school nurses in both communities, continue to work on case management and contact tracing under the supervision of Public Health Nurse Karen Cronin. She said that those nurses are being paid for this work through state emergency funds provided to the district.
Those funds are also being used to reserve a block of rooms at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel on Audubon Road for quarantine use by individuals who cannot quarantine at home.
Clay said that a surge in cases has not been seen in either Wakefield and Melrose.
Wakefield Board of Health Chairman Laurel Gourville said the she recently did a cable show (by teleconference) with Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio. She noted that Maio and Town Council Chairman Edward Dombroski have taken a lead role in local messaging related to the virus outbreak.
She said that WCAT has offered to push out any information that the town provides. Clay noted that she reviews for accuracy all official information that goes out from both communities.
There was some discussion of what constitutes a health advisory versus an order. She said that the state has ordered grocery stores to mark off 6-foot increments on the floor for social distancing and to limit store capacity.
But face masks, she stressed, are an advisory and not mandatory in grocery stores. She noted that the state is also advising people to use a face covering when leaving home. The fact that face masks are still hard to come by makes issuing an mandatory order problematic, Clay said.