May 7, 2020

Franklin County Multi-Agency Coordination Center

Common Operating Picture

Thursday May 7, 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:

Discussion at all levels of government is happening about how to re-open for business. Questions we are receiving lately are about how Franklin County towns are enforcing the Governor's order for the general public to wear face masks when social distancing isn't possible. On this week's situation report form we asked towns to share if they had issued any advisories of their own. Only one town reported that they had. If you have any sample language to share with others relating to enforcement of mask-wearing, please send it to us at FranklinCountyMACC@frcog.org so we can include it in next week's report.

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

As COVID cases continue to plateau, there are fewer topics for the MACC and its collaborative partners to discuss. Therefore, we have moved to biweekly MACC coordination calls. The one item of note from this week's call was that the Opioid Task Force and Tapestry Health are working together to increase distribution of Narcan to first responders. For more information on that, read the Human Services section, below.

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 - Bernardston, Buckland, Conway, Erving, Gill, Sunderland, and Whately all reported new information this week.

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, Heath, Leyden, New Salem, Montague, Northfield, Rowe, Shelburne, Sunderland, Warwick, Whately

Please Note: In the last COP the Town of Hawley was listed as having declared a state of emergency. This was an error on the part of the editor. They have not declared as of this report.

For a more detailed view of the information as of May 7, 2020, including towns who did not report a change from last week CLICK HERE.

Financial Matters

We have been fielding questions lately about the many financial resources that are here, or are coming, to help with COVID expenses. For a brief description of each program and how you can find more information on each, 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.

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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?

COVID Case Report for Franklin County

As expected, numbers in Franklin County continue to increase steadily, but without major spikes. On a per-capita basis, Greenfield (at 1000.2/100,000) is the most affected in Franklin County, owing largely to its role as the host to most of the region’s long-term care facilities. The next most severely impacted group of communities for who rates are calculated by the state include Buckland, Shelburne, and Orange (all in the high 300s per 100,000 of population). Note that numbers are not shared for towns with fewer than 5 cases, so rates are not available for smaller towns.

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Some points of good news to share:

• There are now over 115 people in the county who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and have recovered, with a much larger number recovered who were never diagnosed by a lab.
• Some of our region’s most vulnerable people – those experiencing homelessness—appear to be largely unaffected by the virus so far.

Healthcare

While the rate of new COVID cases has slowed, the overall number continues to rise. Primary care practices report an increasing number of their 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). The Community Health Center of Franklin County's dental emergency capacity is slated to increase significantly next week after additional PPE and structural changes to the building. All Baystate Franklin Birthplace patients are offered testing prior to delivery. Elective procedures at the hospital continue to be unavailable, per Governor’s order, but planning is well underway for how to safely resume this important work once the Governor allows it. Healthcare staffing is stable. All providers are actively planning for how to protect staff and patients when the state begins to re-open.

As they did last week, the healthcare sector asks for your help to 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, so it was good news this week that emergency department visits are beginning to increase again as people seek treatment.

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Baystate Health reports: “Since the beginning of the regional pandemic surge, system-wide, 81% of the system’s COVID-19 confirmed cases have either been discharged to home (308), discharged to skilled nursing facilities (115), or never needed hospitalization (568). To date, 150 hospitalized patients have died due to COVID-19 in Baystate’s five hospitals. Our collective hearts go out to their families and other loved ones. COVID-19 is a terrible scourge that has already exacted a great personal toll on our community and our care givers. The vast majority of these decedents were elderly and had multiple, underlying medical conditions. Most had advanced directives that limited the care they wished to receive.”

PPE

Urgently needed this week:

• The Health Care Resource Center in Greenfield urgently needs masks to hand out to methadone patients who are entering the building daily for medicating. The Center has 60 patients daily medicating and estimates half of those patients do not have masks.
• The Community Health Center of Franklin County needs extra large booties.

Testing Information

Access to testing for Franklin County residents continues to expand. As of this week, drive-through testing is available at the Community Health Center of Franklin County’s Orange site to anyone, regardless of insurance status or primary care provider, however, you must pre-register. Click here to pre-register. 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 in the Baystate system has gone down, from 24.4% to 16.6%, which is good news for our region.

Human Services

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

1) Increased distribution of Narcan to first responders by Tapestry in collaboration with the Opioid Task Force.

• Email narcan@opioidtaskforce.org to obtain Narcan. Calls or texts can also be made to Tapestry’s Mobile Outreach Line at 413-221-7722 between 10 AM - 2 PM, Monday through Friday.

2) Temporary quarters for Emergency Court Hearings located in a trailer at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, 160 Elm Street, Greenfield, MA.

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

4) Continued reports of deaths by suicide and suicide attempts.

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

6) Continued 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.

7) Access to services for the most vulnerable and those who are unhoused continues to be a challenge across the region, especially in Greenfield where a minimum of 40 individuals are seen by Tapestry’s mobile outreach team.

• OTF has created a resource sheet, which was shared broadly in the community with available outdoor, Wi-Fi hotspots, public restrooms, and port-a-potties and portable handwashing stations, along with other services such as Narcan access, pre-packaged foods/snacks, which can be found here.

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

8) 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

9) 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.

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

11) PPE for non-medical human service providers continue to be an issue

12) One agency reported staff in quarantine due to community exposure to COVID-19.

CLICK HERE for the full OTF report.

Announcements | Webinars | Open Source Information | Useful Links

COVID-19 Law Enforcement Guidance

Masks & Face Covering FAQs

Joint Guidance issued by

The Office of the Attorney General

and

The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association

CLICK HERE for the full document.

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.