To Weston Residents: A Memo From The Board Of Health

Press release from the Town of Weston:

April 29, 2020

Weston’s Board of Health wants to explain the work going on “behind the scenes” during the COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in some good news, and wishes to extend appreciation to all those contributing to our safety. The initial decisions made were critical and without them, Weston would have seen a much higher case count of COVID-19 than we currently have.

• March 5th: members of the Biogen community had been notified of their exposure to COVID-19 and quickly self-identified to the Board of Health. They isolated from their families and family members self-quarantined from the community.
• March 11th: working with the Board of Health, School Administration along with their Health Services Director made the decision to close the schools. The decision was made before there was support from the state.
• March 14th: 7 new positive cases were confirmed and more nurses were needed to adequately provide sufficient epidemiologic coverage with contact tracing and follow up. All Weston Public School nurses and substitute nurses immediately joined the Board of Health.
• March 17th and 18th: Weston Public School nurses were all trained on the state’s virtual epidemiologic system and learned their new role as a Public Health Nurse.
• The next wave of positive cases came when universities and colleges closed down, businesses recalled employees back to Massachusetts, and vacationers returned home.

During all of this, the Emergency Management Team met regularly to address the health and safety of all First Responders and town employees still on the job, as well as how to keep the community as safe as possible. To date the Team has addressed:

• remote access to computers to keep the essential services of Town Government functioning
• seeking to procure while balancing limited supply of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and limited sanitizing supplies
• social distancing to protect at-risk individuals and families:
  • in the workplace
  • school recreational assets
  • recreation fields and playgrounds
  • conservation areas and trails

What does this all mean? It means to date we have not seen community spread in Weston.

Without the selfless actions of our first responders, town and school personnel, and the residents that have been impacted by COVID-19, many more of our citizens would have become ill. Your cooperation with social distancing and self-quarantining has kept the community at large healthy and safe. At this time, the Board of Health Epidemiological Team is focused on the next groups most at risk—our nursing home residents and our medical personnel. We urge you to remain vigilant as we are still at the height of this pandemic. Your actions continue to be critical.

Weston Board of Health

Laura Azzam, Chair

David Kominz, MD

Elizabeth DiPietro, MD

Public Health Director Wendy Diotalevi, RS

Read the full memo here...

This press release was produced by the Town of Weston. The views expressed here are the author’s own.