Franklin County Multi-Agency Coordination Center

Common Operating Picture

Friday April 10, 2020

Please note that this document is intended For Official Use Only to further cooperation and coordination across Franklin County towns.

From the FC-MACC Manager:

Thanks again for your continued support of Franklin County by submitting your information.

You may be wondering what we are doing with all this data. The main goal is to look for trends in how the County is responding to COVID-19 and be able to anticipate your needs. We also hope that by you having the information you can learn best practices from your neighbors, reach out to them if you think they need assistance, or reach out for assistance for your own community. If you need the MACC to help in anyway, such as making connections or finding assistance for your community, please let us know.

ABOUT THE MACC

The primary goal of the MACC is to create a common operating picture across the 26 towns in Franklin County and the healthcare facilities that serve us all, as information sharing is so critical.

PLEASE NOTE: The MACC does not have any personal protective equipment on hand. PPE requests should continue to be made directly to MEMA through WebEOC depending on the nature of your organization.

If you need further assistance feel free to send us an email at FranklinCountyMACC@frcog.org or call us at (413) 768-7518 or (413) 768-4127. Visit our webpage at https://tinyurl.com/FCMACC.

Town Information

Emergency Management | Public Health | Police | Fire

Latest City and Town EOC information

We have been gathering a lot of information in the past two days. Below is a brief synopsis.

?Towns Reporting - Ashfield, Bernardston, Charlemont, Conway, Deerfield, Erving, Heath, Leyden, New Salem, Montague, Northfield, Orange, Shelburne, Sunderland, Warwick, Whately

Towns with an Open EOC - Ashfield, Bernardston, Erving, New Salem

Towns that have declared a state of emergency - Ashfield, Bernardston, Charlemont, Conway, Deerfield, Erving, Heath, Leyden, Montague, New Salem, Northfield, Orange, Shelburne, Sunderland, Warwick, Whately

For a more detailed view of the information CLICK HERE.

Franklin County MACC - COVID-19 Dashboard

The FC-MACC Dashboard, created by Ryan Clary - FRCOG senior GIS specialist, is meant to provide important information at your fingertips. It contains a map of COVID-19 cases in the County and other COVID statistics.It is updated on the same day the Franklin County Common Operating Picture Report is sent out, Tuesday and Friday of each week.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE DASHBOARD

In the corner of each square there are buttons to add or remove the layers of data you are interested in and one to see the legend. You can also click directly on the map to get information about any particular community.

COVID-19 Case Reporting?

COVID-19 Cases in Franklin County: MACC data from healthcare and public health indicates that state-reported laboratory cases of COVID-19 continue to increase steadily in our region. In addition, medical providers reported the presence of numerous residents who are presumed to be infected, and have been instructed to self-isolate, but have not had an official lab test due to shortages in testing in the state and our region. At this point Massachusetts has widespread, active community transmission of the disease.

To strike a balance between protecting patient information and allowing towns to have an accurate picture of the severity of the situation, the MACC's situation reports will only include the number of positive COVID-19 cases per town in ranges: 0 - 5 cases, 6 - 25 cases, and so on.

Emergency Medical Services

Reporting EMS agencies are Colrain Ambulance, Northfield EMS, Turners Falls Fire/EMS, South County EMS.

• Three of the four have transported over 4 COVID-19 positive patients in the last two days.
• They have one employee who is in quarantine due to community exposure.
• Some of the reporting agencies are reporting they may be running short on PPE.

If you are a fire-based EMS agency that needs to request PPE, please contact your local emergency management director and ask them to put a request in through MEMA.

If you are with an EMS agency that is not fire-based, go to the Region 1 HMCC webpage by clicking HERE. Scroll down to the resource request process instructions.

Healthcare

SUMMARY: As of this week, healthcare stakeholders report that Franklin County is doing an excellent job at flattening the curve. The burden of new COVID-19 infections on healthcare has been slowed to a manageable flow.

PRIMARY CARE STAFFING AND SERVICES: In general, primary care offices are up and running and seeing patients, both in person and using a wide variety of remote tools – phone, Facebook messenger, and special apps. Practices asked for help in getting the word out that they are open for business.

Some staffing cuts have been implemented in local healthcare facilities due to reduction in caseload. No staff quarantines/isolation were reported from medical partners.

DENTAL and OPTICAL PRACTICES: They are experiencing major PPE acquisition issues. The Community Health Center (CHC) has no N-95 masks. This is especially a problem for emergency dental work, which tends to keep people out of the emergency department. The CHC is also unable to transport people to appointments at this time.

No uptick in overdoses or mental health calls is being seen in the emergency department or through primary care.

TESTING: A drive-through testing facility is expected to open at the end of this week at Baystate Franklin Medical Center. NOTE: As of publication, this facility will serve those patients of Baystate Medical Practices (including Greenfield Family Medicine and the former Connecticut River Internists) who have an order for a test from their primary care providers. Most other medical practices in the region do have a limited ability to test patients and are seeing and diagnosing instances of COVID-19. DPH, with support of the National Guard, is also rolling out testing in long term care facilities in Massachusetts. Additionally, a drive-through testing facility for first responders and healthcare workers has opened at the Big E in West Springfield.

?Click here to read how to get tested.

PPE: Our healthcare institutions continue to have limited supplies of PPE, but no one reported a critically low level for this sitrep, except LifePath, who called attention to an important local need: personal protective equipment for the many people in Franklin County who work as personal care attendants funded through Mass Health, and as home health aides through agencies.

Human Services

Prepared by Debra L. McLaughlin, Coordinator, Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region.

1) Access to services for the most vulnerable and those who are unhoused continues to be a challenge across the region.

• No current Franklin County capacity or plan to house the homeless who exhibit COVID-19 symptoms or who may be diagnosed with COVID-19, and do not need hospital care to recover.
• Tents, sleeping bags, and pre-packaged clothing such as underwear and socks are needed.
• Challenge to determine how to get individuals clothing since the Salvation Army and other free or low-cost clothing donation sites are closed. Additional guidance is needed from the CDC about how to accept clothing donations because of potential COVID-19 surface contamination.
• Requests for PPE and other supplies remain an issue for providers.
• Water and pre-packaged, healthy snacks continue to be a need for people who are unhoused or housing insecure.
• Identifying how the Rental Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program could be used to pay the program fees for individuals seeking supportive, supportive housing.
• Due to stay in new evictions, and suspension of the Housing Court, except for emergency cases, there are not many vacancies in housing units.
• If an eviction had been in progress before COVID-19, it can still proceed but likely action will not occur immediately.
• Individuals/families who are court-involved and need free assistance, can contact the Franklin County Justice Court Service Center at 413-775-7483 or email at mary.klaes@jud.state.ma.us.
• Mass Hire Franklin County Career Center fielding 100 calls a day for help in filing unemployment claims. They are able to provide live phone support but only for Franklin County residents.
• Mass Hire Franklin County Career Center and Harmon Personnel continue to place people in jobs, as the manufacturing sector, continues to hire. It appears that precautions are being taken by employers to keep their employees safe but more information needs to be gathered to identify what support employers need for this purpose.
• The RECOVER Project briefly opened their physical site Monday but closed again on Tuesday. All their services are now provided remotely and they have a toll free warm phone line 844-699-4325, Monday-Friday, 9 am– 5 pm and Saturday and Sunday, 9 am – 3 pm. Check their Facebook page for ongoing updates and a list of their virtual “All Recovery” meetings.
• The Living Room is open at 140 High Street in Greenfield where folks can do laundry, with soap provided, and take a shower. They are limiting the number of people who can be in the site due to safety. Please call ahead at 413-775-6760.
• The Western MA Recovery Learning Community at 20 Chapman Street, is still open for limited access to the bathroom, phone, computer during open hours: Mondays-Wednesdays 12:30 pm-3:30 pm and Fridays 1 pm-5 pm. They are handing out water, snacks, and supplies out the door, 24/7 charging station and Wi-Fi access outside. They also now have portable chargers and a few phones preloaded with minutes and data.
• Tapestry continues to provide services remotely and are eager to ensure organizations have Narcan on site.

?

NOTE: OTF has sharps containers in our office, with their inserts, that we could distribute for free to any municipality.

2) Uneven access to telephonic and telehealth services due to lack of phones, SIM cards, other technology (e.g. computers) and Wi-Fi for program participants and patients remains an issue.

• OTF continues to share their COVID-19 Emergency Fund application to help address gaps and needs.

3) Detoxes, residential treatment, and supportive sober housing facilities remain generally open, with increased COVID-19 screening procedures for staff and residents. Separate areas are being set-aside to isolate individuals, as needed.

4) Lots of good things happening in the region, virtually and by telephone, to ensure service delivery occurs. Some highlights below:

• Two people left the Two Rivers program and found places to live.
• A variety of on-line all recovery support groups exist.
• Individuals are being placed into jobs, despite COVID-19.
• A number of employment/training programs are gearing up, despite COVID-19, especially in healthcare fields.

Open Source Information and Useful Links

Community resource line - The Greenfield EOC and MACC have teamed up to provide a resource line for Franklin County residents. In addition to 211, residents may be referred to 413-775-6411 for answers to questions about COVID-19 or to find a list of resources available to support them during this event.

CLICK HERE for a flyer to distribute.

First responder quarantine facilities - Fire chiefs in Hampshire County have made arrangements with a hotel in Hadley to provide rooms for first responders who are self-quarantining and don't want to bring anything home to their families. Contact Chief Michael Spanknebel for more information at spanknebelm@hadleyma.org or Chief Michael Mason at masonm@hadleyma.gov. If anyone is interested in a Greenfield option for first responder quarantining, contact Chief Robert Strahan at robert.strahan@greenfield-ma.gov.

First responder recovery facilities - The Hampden County Sheriff's Department has made arrangements to open a First Responder Recovery Home in Ludlow for those first responders who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and cannot safely go home to recover. For more information, contact the Sheriff's Department at 413-858-0801 or 413-858-0819.