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EAST LONGMEADOW – East Longmeadow Health Director Aimee Petrosky along with East Longmeadow Emergency Management Director and East Longmeadow Fire Chief Paul Morrissette hosted a COVID–19 informational meeting with the residents and staff at Brownstone Gardens on March 11.
Property Manager of Brownstone Gardens Christopher Carr welcomed everyone in attendance to the meeting stating, “These are strange times.” He explained that information changes daily, and though he has no scientific background, he’s turning to the Board of Health and other local town officials to provide information to residents.
Petrosky kicked off the meeting by explaining that neither she nor Morrissette are medical professionals, however they are there to give “information as a public health professional.”
Petrosky shared that COVID–19, “also known as coronavirus, coronavirus is a family of viruses and COVID–19 is a little piece of that family. So that’s why you’ll hear it referred to as COVID–19 or coronavirus.”
Petrosky noted what symptoms go along with COVID–19, which include a fever, sore throat, cough or shortness of breath as stages evolve.
“Some of the things that you can do to protect yourselves as well as the people in your small community at Brownstone, and then the larger communities of East Longmeadow and Massachusetts is that if you’re sick, stay home. If you think you’re not feeling well but you think it might just be a cold, play it safe, stay home anyway,” Petrosky advised residents.
Petrosky advised that if a resident thinks they are experiencing symptoms of COVID–19, they should indicate that when they call 911, so the first responders know how to protect themselves when they arrive on-scene. Petrosky then indicated how residents should cough, advising them to cough into the crook of their elbow and not their hand to aid in the spreading of germs.
Moving on, Petrosky explained social distancing techniques, sharing that while they were all in close quarters for the meeting, if the virus were to come to East Longmeadow, residents should keep distance between themselves and other people.
“When I tell you it’s changing by the hour I could not be more serious. We are getting updates from public health nurses, DPH [department of public health], the state of emergency management system, the governor's office, the school department,” Petrosky explained. “It is a well-oiled machine, and we’re all working together.”
Petrosky then noted the town's emergency notification system, and that if a resident is not signed up for it yet, they should consider signing up. In addition, Petrosky advised residents to – if they’re on social media – follow the East Longmeadow Health Department’s page, as they update it daily with information as well as informative videos and more.
Sanitization efforts have been increased at town hall, the schools, the senior center, and other municipal locations, according to Petrosky.
“You see the CDC or the news put out ‘lysol wipes kill coronavirus’ right? If you read the fine print of those, you have to let it stay wet for five to ten minutes. And if you’ve ever used a bleach wipe, and you wipe a surface, that surface is not wet for five to ten minutes,” Petrosky explained. “So essentially, you’re not killing the virus on the surface. You have to really read the back of the label of the chemical that you’re using.” Petrosky then noted that if a resident is having a hard time understanding if the chemical they’re using kills the virus or how the product should be used, they can call the health department and they will walk the resident through it.
One point that Petrosky made clear to those in attendance was that all departments in town are working on a “continuity of operations plan.” Explaining further, “this is a plan that each department head is working on that will help the entire town function should coronavirus come to our area and start to affect municipal services. That way, your services that are provided to you shouldn’t be interrupted.”
“We’re taking all the precautions that are recommended by the CDC, the Department of Public Health, the governor's office and MEMA,” Morrissette stated.
He continued to explain that when an individual calls 911, the dispatcher may ask the caller what their symptoms are and if they have recently traveled, as travel was one of the initial triggers for the spread of coronavirus. “You don’t have to have traveled to any of those other countries any more, you could’ve just went grocery shopping at the Big Y,” he said.
Petrosky added, “I’m making it a big deal that we don’t [have a case in East Longmeadow] but even if we did, we do have systems in place to make sure that it is under control, and that we keep you safe. If it were, and we did have diagnosed cases in East Longmeadow, Paul [Morrissette]
and I work really hard for you even when there’s not something that we need to come and present to you on, to make sure that we have plans and processes in place for situations like this.”
Reassuring residents, Petrosky added, “We have an emergency preparedness team that talks about this stuff when it’s not an issue so that when it is an issue we know how to prepare and protect you.”
Morrissette and Petrosky opened the meeting up to questions from those in attendance. One resident brought up the issue of handing money, and how germs can be living on cash. Petrosky explained that any time we handle money, someone who is sick could have handled that money. Petrosky brought the discussion back to proper hand washing, explaining that a recent press conference showed a woman reading her speech and as she said ‘don’t touch your face,’ she licked her finger to flip her speech to the next page.
“You could be [at] the healthiest place in the world and that would still gross me out and give shivers down my spine because I just know how dirty our hands are, even if we think we’ve done a great job washing them,” Petrosky stated.
Continuing, Petrosky explained that the first thing anyone should do when they arrive home is immediately wash their hands for 20 seconds.
When it comes to hand sanitizer, Petrosky explained that residents should look at the back of the sanitizer label to make sure it is effective, as it needs to have 70 percent or more alcohol content to work. With that said, Petrosky said washing hands with soap and hot water is “your best bet.”
A resident asked what the 14-day period of staying home/quarantine really meant. Petrosky explained that the 14-day quarantine is about having people stay inside to make sure that they do not get sick. “If you’ve been exposed and you stayed inside for 14 days, CDC is saying, you don’t have that virus, so it’s safe to come back outside” Petrosky said.
Furthermore, Petrosky explained why someone would be quarantined. “The quarantine is not for healthy people, or for people who have no suspected exposure. The only reason you would stay inside for 14 days is if …” she threw out a hypothetical situation, “if you were taking the bus and there was a person who was on that bus, the driver, who had coronavirus. DPH would then do a trace back and say who rode the bus that day.” Petrosky continued to explain that the DPH would find out who rode the bus, and subsequently call Petrosky and let the department know. From there, the town department of health would call the residents affected and tell them that they have to be under the 14 day quarantine. Each day, Petrosky’s department would call the infected residents and see how they’re feeling, take down their temperature, and complete other measures to monitor the individuals.
The meeting continued on, with residents asking questions and receiving answers from Petrosky and Morrissette. Should an individual want to watch the meeting for themselves, it can be found on ELCAT’s YouTube page,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y9rtmopg7g
The East Longmeadow Health Department can be reached at 525-5400, ext. 1103.