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Date: 4/22/2020
CHESTER – Chester Board of Health Chairman Nicholas Chiusano wrote an email on April 2 to the Home Depot Foundation, requesting personal protective equipment, specifically N95 masks, for first responders in the town to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, the town received a pallet of N95 masks from the Home Depot Pro Institutional in Georgia, far more than they anticipated.
Board of Health member Elizabeth Massa said they’ve been soliciting donations because small towns like Chester typically do not receive assistance from government programs.
She said in response to the generous donation, they decided to share them with surrounding hilltowns for their police and fire departments, Board of Health and dog officers, all of whom have been going into people’s homes.
As of April 19, Board of Health member Gregory Harrison had taken the lead in delivering two to three boxes of N95 masks, containing 60 masks each, to a dozen surrounding hilltowns, including Becket, Blandford, Goshen, Granville, Middlefield, Montgomery, Otis, Russell, Sandisfield, Southwick and Worthington.
The first stop was to give seven boxes to the Hilltown Community Ambulance Association.
Massa said the ambulance association, which is on the front line in the hilltowns, was down to two boxes when they arrived.
They were also offered to the State Police barracks in Russell and the Hilltown Community Health Center, both of whom had adequate supplies. Massa said the Health Center is seeking hand sanitizer.
"We’re lucky so far that we have had very few cases,” Massa said about many of the small towns. However, she said more cases may be coming, especially as summer residents head north, and first responders must be protected.
“We have no backup,” Massa said.
As of April 19, Chester had six reported positive cases of COVID-19, and one death.