Board of Aldermen 03-16-2020 Page 4
We have to also think about individuals that have Diabetes, Heart Disease, Asthma, people that are on
Chemo, any kind of immune compromising disorder is going to put individuals that suffer from those
disorders at greatest risk. So we appeal to our community, we want people to be socially responsible.
We want individuals to think, not just about their protection, but the protection of others and take these
measures seriously and enact the preventative measures that we need to on a daily basis. | don’t
know if folks have any other questions about the case that was reported, of what information can be
shared? | will address those as confidentially as | can.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you. Director Bagley, from what | heard on the National News and everything, there was the
recommendation and is it still current that one — if they think they are infected or suffering symptoms,
the worst thing that they could do is actually show up at the ER where they could contaminate or
perhaps shut down the whole hospital for a short period of time. So would it not be best and should
we iterate that to the public, if they feel that they are contaminated, to contact their primary care
physician or another immediate care facility and go through the screening process before showing up
to the Emergency Room.
Director Bagley
Yes Aldermen, that is exactly what we need for people to do. If people are sick and they have
symptoms, they should not go to their doctor's office; they should not be in the emergency room. They
do need to call first so they can have a screening done over the telephone and that provider will give
them further directions on what may need to happen. And so that the hospitals can also be prepared if
they do come into the hospital.
Mayor Donchess
You might mention the public service line that you are attempting to set up.
Director Bagley
Yes at this time there’s a couple of things that we are looking to do over at the Health Department. The
Public Health Nurses have been trained to actually do the sample collection so that we can increase
testing and will offer testing from a mobile site. We are also looking to set up a phone line so that we
can take questions and answers from individuals in our community. The State has been overwhelmed
since the first case in New Hampshire that was diagnosed in January and as they continue to go up.
Those numbers, if you think about the number of cases that there are, there are hundreds of calls that
they get on a daily basis of individuals that are really concerned about their risk for this infection. So
we do plan to set up a call line or a call center so we can take questions and answers from individuals.
Alderwoman Kelly
Thank you. | wanted to ask about testing. | know Alderman O’Brien talked about specifically getting
screened first. But | want to know if we have more information on how many tests are available and
are we ruling it out or is it better that we just keep ourselves in quarantine.
