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Date: 3/2/2021
SOUTHWICK – Government and public health officials continue to grapple with getting the coronavirus vaccine to residents.
At the Southwick Board of Health’s Feb. 25 meeting, Public Health Nurse Kate Johnson said the biggest problem with the vaccine rollout was how quickly it was announced that local health departments would not be vaccinating their own people.
“It seemed very quick in terms of one day they are sending a survey asking about how many doses you want and then three days later saying, ‘Nope, we have 20 sites across the state, stop requesting the vaccine.’ There was not time to undo the planning because the state made the change on us,” she said.
One of the realities Board of Health Chair Jerry Azia said the town had to face was inequality with what was being distributed in the eastern side of the state.
“It is the typical our money flows east and what comes West past 495? I think that’s the predicament our towns face west of Worcester, they look at the numbers and say Southwick can wait. I understand the vaccine is in short supply, but they have months and months to plan these clinics and the excuse that they did not know how many vaccines they were getting is ludicrous,” he said.
Health Director Tammy Spencer chimed in and said that the state was not using programs locally that were designed for emergency situations such as a wide vaccine rollout.
“The people that would assist us in that program, which was called Public Health Emergency Planning, are not even being utilized. That was our lifeline to emergency preparedness for so many years and the model that we used. We are all sort of floating in nothing with no real connection to people that we know at the state,” she said.
Johnson added that she was disappointed the town had to spend money on personal protective equipment that now may not even be used.
“We did a lot of procurement in terms of PPE and signage in what I thought was going to be a win-win. It is what it is, I’m completely disappointed to see it get taken away from us,” she said.
At the time of the meeting, Spencer said all plans were in the air while she and other health directors await word from the state.
“Everything is just really up in the air, I’ve been talking to some of my local health directors and we all sort of feel the same way, things go up and things go down,” she said.
Meanwhile, the at the Select Board’s Feb. 22 meeting, the board unanimously agreed to a motion that would allow Moglin to pursue any avenues to put together the regional vaccination site at the Big E in conjunction with West Springfield and Agawam at the Big E.
Moglin said he talked with Agawam Mayor William Sapelli on Feb. 19 about joining up with the towns for the Big E site.
“I was notified late Friday evening by Mr. Sapelli that Agawam and West Springfield were interested in trying to potentially stand up a vaccination site at the Big E that would comply with the orders set forth by Marylou Sudders that scuttled everybody’s plans for local vaccination clinics. And I told Mayor Sapelli we were in,” he said.
Fire Chief Russ Anderson said he also had spoken to Northampton about a potential mass vaccination site and explained that the costs for any medics sent to help at these sites could be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Northampton and Amherst opened cooperative regional vaccination sites, however, those clinics have been forced to cancel appointments due to vaccine supply shortages.
“I did reach out to Northampton who is doing something similar. They are trying to put together a regional site as well. Under the medic side of it, any people supplied to a site go based on their union contract. The town that sends the person has to fill out the FEMA forms to get reimbursed,” he said.
Westfield Mayor Don Humason announced on Facebook on March 1 that the proposed Big E site had been rejected by the state, however.
“The commonwealth has denied our request (along with Agawam, West Springfield, Southwick, the Hampden County House of Correction, and others) to offer a regional vaccination distribution site at the Big E grounds,” he said. “Apparently they still don’t have sufficient doses from the feds yet. Southwick officials clearly share my frustration.”
One of the current constraints for the vaccination site located at the Eastfield Mall is its distance from Southwick.
“The one for us is in eastern Springfield, which is a bit of a hike. The process for some of our seniors especially is an arduous task to get there. It’s a challenge when it’s an hour each way plus the time waiting in line and then getting your shot. It becomes untenable,” Moglin said.
He added that he was in favor of joining the other two communities because it would be near impossible to set the site up in Southwick.
“I don’t think we could sustain the number of shots in a day the state mandates, there’s no way, it’s 750 for five straight days. So, doing something in conjunction with West Side and Agawam at the Big E seems to be a reasonable alternative if it comes to fruition,” Moglin said.
Johnson also discussed the trends for COVID-19 in Southwick on Feb. 25.
“It’s looking better, being in the yellow is good. Case count is 21 which puts us in the yellow because it is less than 25 for the two-week period. The 2.98 positivity percentage is the lowest we have been since mid-November, we are doing well in comparison to the Hampden County percent,” she said.
She added that the highest case numbers were in people in their 50s and early 60s.