The Somerville City Council is concerned that appropriate protection against COVID-19 infection is being provided to the city’s first responders.

By Jim Clark

An order was put forward at the April 14 meeting of the Somerville City Council’s Committee on Public Health and Public Safety requesting that the Chief of Police and the Chief Fire Engineer appear before the Committee with an update on their plans to keep first responders safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the discussion on the matter, Ward 2 Councilor J.T. Scott said, “I want to make sure that I understand perfectly clearly. We are not testing fire or police employees unless they show symptoms? We do not know how much asymptomatic spread is potentially happening there within the departments or within or to the residents that these first responders interact with, who are often our most vulnerable residents. And we currently do not have a plan for testing to find out.”

In response to Scott’s remarks, Khushbu Webber from the Mayor’s Office said, “As far as our testing of first responders, it is really dependent on the guidelines put forward by the Department of Public Health and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Until those guidelines change, our protocols for when we test first responders is what it is.”

“I want to share an update,” Webber continued. “I had an opportunity to speak with both [Police] Chief Fallon and [Fire] Chief Breen about the protocols that the Police Department as well as the Fire Department have put into place to protect first responders. As far as the Somerville Police Department, Somerville Police officers are made aware if they are dispatched to an address in the city where an individual resides who has tested positive. The Department has also changed its policy on certain calls in an effort to eliminate whenever possible an officer’s contact with the public.”

Webber further explained that “officers are given protective masks, gloves and hand sanitizers in each cruiser.” She also stated that the officers have been equipped with cleaning agents to sanitize their cruisers in between calls and any time they deem necessary.

“The Department has also sent numerous notifications to officers updating them on CDC [Center for Disease Control] guidelines and keeping themselves as safe as possible when interacting with the public,” said Webber. “They’ve also sent home information to officers’ families on steps they can take at home to keep everyone safe when officers report home from duty.”

Webber added, “They’ve also made structural changes to workstations within the Public Safety buildings to keep 911 operators safe and healthy as well.”

“There is also policy on pandemic planning and response that is somewhat generic, but has been a good framework and has been strengthened through memos and updates that the Police Department has been regularly sending out,” according to Webber.

“Additionally, with the Somerville Fire Department, they now assume on any medical calls that the person is positive, even if there are no symptoms,” Webber said. “All fire apparatus contains two bins containing COVID-19 related equipment. The equipment includes gowns, gloves, surgical masks, N95 masks, N95 adapters, or they’re supplied airless respirator masks, disposable pilot suits, face shields, biohazard bags and spray bottles of disinfectant.”

Webber further explained that exposures are followed up by a Department infection control officer. Those who come into contact or test positive are required to go into quarantine.

“Additionally, hands on training on PPE [Personal Protection Equipment] has been taking place for the last three weeks, as well as an online class that all members are required to take,” Webber said.

Webber added, “One of the things that the Fire Department and the Police Department have done is that they have strengthened their requirements on PPE for first responders, and this has reduced the number of infections and contact that first responders have had relative to the virus.”

In response to a question about the number of infections sustained by the city’s first responders, Webber told the Committee that in the previous week five firefighters were quarantined and one of them had tested positive. As of the time of the meeting, none of those individuals were still in quarantine and the one who tested positive had recovered.

“Chief Breen wanted me to reiterate to you all that the updates in protective measures in protocol that the Police Department and the Fire Department have taken has had a positive effect in terms of reducing the number of quarantine or virus related contact that has occurred,” Webber told the Council. “And one of the key parts of this is that going forward it is assumed that any medical calls involve a person who has tested positive, even if there are no symptoms.”

Annie Connor, speaking for the Administration added, “I wanted to clarify that as much as we would like to have control over who gets tested, that is all through the Department of Public Health. We don’t control the prioritization of who gets tested, unfortunately. We would like to, of course.”

According to Webber, Police Chief Fallon reported that the current number of officers that have tested positive is three, and that two of them are currently in self-quarantine.

Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen weighed in on the issue saying, “I share a lot of the outrage on our inability to conduct all the tests that we do, but for anybody watching from home, I think it’s really important that people understand this is directly the result of failures on the level of the federal government. It is now well established that the CDC created a failed test. They then blocked the ability at state labs to make their own tests, and by the time they relaxed that the supply chains were completely overwhelmed for all the private tests. So, just so no one gets confused at home, as if there’s some ability of Somerville to decide who to test, I think it’s really important to emphasize that we are going to, as a country, eventually have the capacity to do the tests widely.”

The agenda items relating to these issues were kept in Committee for further discussion.