April 30, 2020

Franklin County Multi-Agency Coordination Center

Common Operating Picture

Thursday April 30, 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:

As we begin to see a plateau of positive COVID cases in the County, and PPE requests are slowing down accordingly, the MACC will cease operating out of Greenfield's EOC effective close of business 5/1. We will continue to operate virtually until it appears the communities no longer have a need for our services. You can still reach us at the numbers and email address below until we officially demobilize.

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.

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.

MACC Coordination Meetings

During the prior week's coordination meeting, Greenfield's Police Chief Haigh brought to our attention the need for a temporary facility to process "Section 35's," which is a section of MA law that allows a qualified person to request a court order requiring someone to be civilly committed and treated involuntarily for an alcohol or substance use disorder. With the courthouse being closed, police departments were forced to hold Section 35 cases in their holding cells until they could be processed each morning, potentially unnecessarily exposing other inmates and officers to COVID-19.

In a follow up meeting, the Chief and Sheriff discussed the future of arraignments and other holding procedures that the Trial Court would not be able to assist with in the short and potentially long term, as well. These impacts would be felt countywide, for all police departments.

The MACC worked with Greenfield's logistics section and the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to rent a trailer that will be placed at the Sheriff's Office. The trailer, complete with electricity, HVAC, and internet access will provide a place for a court clerk to operate from to process these cases quickly. The trailer is expected to arrive on May 1st.

Other items discussed this week were:

• Getting word out about the new eviction and foreclosure moratorium and resources to help those who are unemployed to pay their rent.
• Planning for flu clinics with social distancing in mind.
• Concerns about protocols for child care centers and summer camps when they are allowed to reopen.
• How Franklin County can have input on the State's Reopening Board.

Town Information

Emergency Management | Public Health | Police | Fire

Latest City and Town EOC information

Below is a brief synopsis of the data being reported.

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

Towns with an Open EOC - Ashfield, Bernardston, Erving, Greenfield

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

For a more detailed view of the information as of April 30, 2020 CLICK HERE.

Responsibly Reopening Town Hall

We had a request from one of our Franklin County towns to see if anyone has sample policies or procedures they could share on how they're intending to responsibly reopen their town halls once it is safe to do so. While no one has responded that they have anything written yet, we did hear that the MA Interlocal Insurance Agency (MIIA) is working on guidance in collaboration with the CDC and MA Dept. of Public Health. For a list of items to consider when writing policies, click here.

Franklin County Sheriff’s Office

The same service and programming changes as reported last week continue. The FCSO has sufficient PPE for the next month and has secured a supply chain to acquire more in the future. FCSO has sufficient testing kits. There are 0 confirmed cases of COVID-19 amongst inmates. There remain three confirmed cases of COVID-19 amongst staff. At least 15 other staff have been tested and all were negative.

?

Service changes include:

• Behavioral health groups within the jail have stopped due to social distancing
• Incarcerated clients are completing individual work on their recovery with workbooks which are reviewed by staff
• Post-release reentry support occurs over the phone
• Staff continue to support clients in navigating resources and finding shelter
• Regional lockup is on hold
• House of Correction is accepting new inmates through courts only

Franklin County MACC - COVID-19 Dashboard

The FC-MACC Dashboard, created by FRCOG, 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 throughout the week so check back for updated information.

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?

Data Reporting Changes: The MACC will be reporting COVID case data as follows: Weekly cumulative town cases are drawn from the DPH website, unless corrected by local public health. All communities with five or fewer cases are reported as having 0-5 cases. Communities with more than five cases will continue to be grouped by color, for the purposes of our “heat map,” but will also have the actual number of positive lab-tested cases added to the data shared. Where available, we will also share number of patients recovered, people in isolation and quarantine, and numbers deceased, as reported by the local health department. Communities with no data listed have chosen not to share this data at this time.

Healthcare

Primary care practices report an increasing number of patients with COVID-19, as anticipated. All practices are open for business, both online and in-person for urgent care. Some specialty care is currently unavailable (dental hygiene, optometry). Elective procedures at the hospital continue to be unavailable, per Governor’s order. Healthcare staffing is stable and urgent care visits are available. Providers believe that the peak numbers may be behind us, and we are now in a long, steady, plateau of cases.

Please help the healthcare sector get the word out that safe emergency care is possible and people experiencing a health crisis are urged to come in. There are serious concerns in the medical community that many people may be avoiding getting treatment for important health issues like stroke, diabetes, and heart disease.

COVID Case Report for Franklin County

As expected, numbers in Franklin County continue to trend upward, steadily. Some points of good news to share are that there are now over 115 people in the county that have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and have recovered, with a much larger number recovered who were never diagnosed by a lab. There continue to be real concerns and significant State attention to protecting the residents and staff at long term care and skilled nursing facilities and people experiencing homelessness.

PPE

Needed:

• Gowns for personal care attendants
• Tyvek suits or back-tying gowns for emergency dental surgery at the Community Health Center of Franklin County.
• PPE for Community Action staff who are still interacting with people in need (e.g. food pantry workers)

Testing Information

Access to testing for Franklin County residents continues to expand. As of this week, the Baystate Franklin Medical Center drive-through site is available to anyone (including children) who has symptoms, from any medical practice, including first responders. Tests must be ordered by medical practices. Click here for more information. Overall, as testing has increased, the percent of positive diagnoses has gone down, which is good news for our region.

The Community Health Center of Franklin County is planning a drive-through testing facility at its Orange site to be operational late next week.

Human Services

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

Summary of Themes

Below is a summary of key themes based on the above meetings and other outreach OTF has been a part of this week during the period of April 23 – April 29, 2020.

1) Increased reports of fatal and non-fatal opioid and other drug overdoses in the region, especially in the North Quabbin remains a significant concern.

• Area hospital, EMS, and community health center are not seeing an uptick in drug overdoses but the MA Department of Children and Families, and the courts are. Other community reports of overdoses have been noted via community coalitions and task forces.

2) Increased reports of deaths by suicide and suicide attempts.

3) Increased reports of individuals in mental health crisis. Crisis services calls are down but have the capacity to respond to calls. There are reports of people feeling “fatalistic” that they will get COVID-19, no matter what they do.

4) Increased reports of calls by families to human services agencies for supports and services when Governor Baker announced school and non-essential child care closures until June 30.

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

• May be a challenge to increase port-a-potty and public bathroom access in some communities due to past vandalism and damage.
• Recommended exploration of installing hand sanitizing stations along bus routes.

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

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

• OTF created a resource sheet of available public Wi-Fi hotspots to share broadly in the community, which can be found here.

7) 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.

8) DCF continues to report the removal of children due to opioid and substance misuse and overdoses.

9) PPE for non-medical human service providers continues to be an issue.

10) Some agencies reporting that staff have been exposed to COVID-19 as a result of their work and are or have been in quarantine.

• Staffing shortages affecting coverage for overnight, direct care evening and weekend services but being covered by management staff.

CLICK HERE for the full OTF report.

Announcements | Webinars | Open Source Information | Useful Links

The MEMA Recovery Unit would like to make you aware of several upcoming FEMA PA trainings. Please be aware that they are FEMA presentations and technical questions or issues should be directed to FEMA through the link at the bottom of the notice.

FEMA Public Assistance Training Webinars

Applicant Basics Webinar Topics:

• Register and set up a new Grants Portal account
• Submit a Request for Public Assistance (RPA)
• Upload documents and create tiles

Audience:

• State/Local/Tribal/Territorial (SLTT) governments
• Private Non-Profit (PNP) entities
• FEMA staff

*EDT: Eastern Daylight Time | CDT: Central Daylight Time | MDT: Mountain Daylight Time | PDT: Pacific Daylight Time

*All sessions are 1 hour in duration.

To join a webinar, click the corresponding link above at the designated time and enter the unique meeting password.

Please sign in with your full name, organization, state, tribe, and/or territory for tracking purposes. Sessions may be recorded.

If you have trouble logging in, try going to www.zoom.us. Choose “Join Meeting,” enter the meeting ID and then the password when prompted. You may sign into Zoom as a guest. Your Zoom log-in information is unique from your Grants Portal log-in information.

If you have questions, please email FEMA-Recovery-PA-Grants@fema.dhs.gov or call the Grants Manager/Portal Hotline at (866) 337-8448.

APPLICATION PERIOD OPENS NEXT WEEK FOR $100 MILLION in Assistance to Firefighters Grant - COVID-19 Supplemental Program

The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is available for $100 million in funding for the Fiscal Year 2020 Assistance to Firefighters Grant – COVID-19 Supplemental Program (AFG-S) to help provide personal protective equipment to firefighters and first responders who are managing emergencies during the Coronavirus pandemic.

FEMA will begin accepting AFG-S applications at 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday April 28, 2020. The application period will close at 5 p.m. ET on Friday, May 15, 2020, so start planning your application now by reviewing the NOFO and technical assistance tools below. These tools were produced to help potential applicants begin to plan their AFG-S applications ahead of the application period. These documents can be viewed on the AFGP website at FY 2020 AFG-S COVID-19 Guidance Documents and/or downloaded to your computer.

• FY 2020 AFG-S Notice of Funding Opportunity
• Cost Share Calculator - This calculator will help you understand and determine your organization's cost share for AFG-S grants

AFG Grants Help Desk: If you have questions about the technical assistance tools listed above, call or e-mail the AFG Grants Help Desk at 1-866-274-0960; or firegrants@fema.dhs.gov. The AFG Help Desk is open Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time.