Page 1 of 11

Community COVID-19 Task Force Meeting Minutes October 14, 2020

1. Welcome

Meeting called to order at

Members present: Robert Whitelaw, Chair Pamela Sawyer, Vice Chair Rick Barber Rebecca Fox Terry Ann Lunt Alice Pearce Buzzy Roy

Members absent: Kent Bridges Charley LaFlamme

Others present: Lt. Matt Buttrick, Ogunquit Police Department Erich Fogg, PA, York Hospital

2. Minutes

September 2, 2020

Motion made by Rebecca Fox and second by Alice Pearce to accept the minutes of the September 2, 2020 COVID-19 Task Force meeting as presented; approved 7-0, Bridges and LaFlamme absent.

September 16, 2020

Page 2 of 11

Since a quorum wasn’t available to vote on these minutes, they were tabled until the next meeting of the COVID-19 Task Force.

3. CDC update

Charley LaFlamme was not present for the CDC update.

Chair Whitelaw stated that since Charley was not present, and Erich Fogg had not come on yet that he would take this time to discuss something that he has been studying with some people in the in the health industry. Been looking at hospitalizations and each week it says no ventilators, so what's going on here. Contacted some of colleagues who hooked him up with some people at the University of Toronto. Apparently in the beginning stages of this difficult time pneumonia was considered to be the key component to causing the respiratory problems. Apparently is not the case anymore, it's now blood clots, or was always blood clots that just weren't diagnosed correctly. That is why you don't see any ventilators being used in Maine. I don't know about other places, but the number of ventilators being used is much lower than had been used before.

They have turned to blood thinners and some other drugs. There is a study in Israel around alpha defensins which is a compound that is secreted that causes blood clots and there are drugs to treat that. That is why not seeing so much on the ventilators. These are research doctors in Toronto, who I had a chance to chat with. Also, I asked them just off the cuff, what is the steroid use issue and they said, simply because sometimes your body has a cyclic storm and over protects you, so must use steroids to knock that back.

Comments/questions:  Pamela Sawyer

Terry Ann Lunt commented on the updates that the group has been getting through Lt. Buttrick regarding the status of York County.

Erich Fogg, PA, York Hospital  Start off by saying that did the most flu shots that we've done to date for the week of October 4th - 10th;  Did 1,120 COVID tests last week. Page 3 of 11

 Which speaks to what we're hearing about reading about seeing in our local communities with outbreaks, noticed a big difference.  Saw a ton of folks looking for travel exemptions quarantine bypass throughout the summer. Now these folks are really requesting testing for potential contacts, contacts, symptomatic cases exposures, concern, abundance of caution…lump it in those categories.  So are away from the travelers.  Since last spoke Massachusetts found itself on the exempt list for travel restrictions. That was something immediately noticed at our test site in terms of demand for folks traveling in and out of Massachusetts.  So tests last week; what we landed on in terms of a percent positive was 1.1% positivity rates out of those 1,120 tests.  The three-month rolling average is 0.9% which is a scooch above of the State of Maine average.  Last understanding was the State of Maine was somewhere around 0.7% positivity.  It matches with York County being one of the areas right now that's a little bit of a hotspot.  Outbreaks – currently monitoring 17 outbreaks in York County. The newest one that has been opened as of Saturday is the Coastal Ridge Elementary School, which is one of the two elementary schools here in York.  Was part of that CDC call with the Superintendent of the school district on Saturday. The situation is that there are three children all in third grade in three different classrooms.  The trigger for the CDC for an outbreak is three cases within a building so that tripped the outbreak situation.  Done a ton of testing on all those contacts and, to my knowledge, at least those that have come through the York Hospital test site was that not any positives coming out of that.  It is a little bit early, certainly don't think we are totally out of the woods yet since incubation is two days to 14 days; probably into this right now a week or so.  The other big news that read about in the newspaper was the hockey exposure. The referee who was exposed to a bunch of games over a several day period from New Hampshire all the way into Biddeford, Portland and North Yarmouth. Doesn't look like there's a lot of positive cases coming out of that. Page 4 of 11

 At York Hospital we haven't since spoke to you last two weeks ago, we haven't had an inpatient.  Seeing a little bit of an uptick in cases but not seeing hospitalized patients or requiring any sort of advanced therapies. Nobody in the ICU with COVID.  This is good news but watching it very closely.  So overall,  Cautious with everything going on around us, but I don't think any worse that were two weeks ago.  Started elective procedures, to date have done 2,930 pre-operative, pre- procedural surgeries and have had only one positive (since June 1st).  Have opened a drive-through flu shot clinic, have done 3,200 in the last five weeks. Normally at this time of year, would be around 1,200. Almost 5,000 flu shots to date.  The way we treated this in March looks a lot different now, were really quick to intubate early on by putting a breathing tube down their throat and assist ventilation.  The mortality rate associated with early intubation was higher than trying to delay that, so you heard about things like proning or turning people upside down onto their stomach to allow gravity to cause blood flow to rush to the front of your chest where your lungs are located. It allows oxygenation better, so doing interventions like proning and supporting airways and delaying intubation seem to benefit, so saw the need for ventilators to go down a little bit.  Saw weird things start to develop that hadn't seen before in other respiratory viruses, we found that this was an inflammatory process as well causing what's called hypercoagulability where you can develop blood clots which were leading to strokes and pulmonary embolism.  At York Hospital only had one case of a blood clot situation. Didn't see the great numbers that were seeing in larger cities.  What are experiencing, at least in when you look at the entire state of Maine, right now, there are eight people in the hospital in the entire state of Maine, who have a positive COVID diagnosis and only three of those are in the ICU.  There is some thought that this virus has somewhat mutated, at least the strain that are seeing in New England with the increasing numbers but flat hospitalization rates. Are seeing more people that don't require hospitalization or advanced therapies that tend to do well. Page 5 of 11

 Not seeing the sick people in the State, not just York County, that don’t require hospitalization.

Comments/questions:  Pamela Sawyer  Rebecca Fox  Bob Whitelaw

4. News from the field

Lt. Matt Buttrick

 The information that has been passed along comes by way of Maine Emergency Management who send almost nightly, the business Monday through Friday, updates where they curate for us the current outbreak statuses in York County as well as the hospitalizations and the ventilator use; and total available resources. They update the changes pretty much daily. Talking about the outbreak at the York School District, which is the Coastal Elementary School (3 cases) and High School (1) in York. Are very looped in with York Hospital and the Infectious Disease staff there. Are working diligently to work way through this.  As York County became a hotspot it is also useful to see how they fall off the outbreak list.  The criteria for the outbreak list are that is you must have 28 days or two incubation cycles without a positive test after you've been identified as an outbreak; to be considered not an outbreak.  The county jail is falling off and one of the churches have started to fall off.  But if on your 27th day you get another positive case it's considered part of that outbreak cycle. the 28-day rule kicks back in.  It was very busy this weekend, sold out on Saturday.  Saturday was warm summer-like day.  The town was very busy, had extra staff on doing both COVID compliance checks, masks reminders and handing out masks to people who might need them.  And had an officer on Sunday night do business COVID checks where touched base talking about the Phase 4 that went into effect on Monday and some of the changes that came along with Phase 4. Page 6 of 11

 There are less restrictions essentially under Phase 4 and some of the owners weren't aware of some of those, that was helpful education for us to be able to offer.  Continue to plan on doing pop in check-ins as the weather worsens and gets a little bit cooler. Anticipate that may have to help some establishments troubleshoot some indoor space issues.

5. Review of recent citizen contact

Rick Barber  It has been quiet with people reaching out since restrictions have been lifted from Massachusetts.

Alice Pearce  Commented on the responses the Chamber has received regarding the way the activities for October were organized.  Discussed creating a tide chart and a little handout to be given to guests staying in Ogunquit so that they are aware of the high tide which creates lack of beach space.

6. Old Business

 Notifications and signage

Lt. Buttrick, Terry Ann Lunt and Alice Pearce

Terry Ann Lunt:

o Think that the Town, the Chamber and local businesses are planning for more durable, more seasonally appropriate and coordinated use of universal symbols for signage recognizing that are not just for the short term and that the pandemic is likely to push us into next season. o Due to the early actions by the Select Board, Town Manager and Departments, including Lt. Buttrick, have kept Ogunquit and the community safe for visitors and residents and local businesses. o Have been able to access dollars that were provided to communities to do additional things that were needed. Page 7 of 11 o The timeframe is short, it is very time sensitive for the Town and for the Chamber to use dollars that have been appropriated for helping keep the Town safe to get signs and other things ordered. o Alice and Lt. Buttrick have worked together on both signage design. o Only reached out to the Task Force to ask all to provide input for where additional signage needs to go or where did not need additional signage, or where the signage, that have may not need to be. o Some of those who have responded have received some of the town designs and have weighed in.

Lt. Matt Buttrick o The Chamber has an amazing design which they showed during our little subcommittee meeting, it was good. They used someone who does graphic design. o The plan for the Town signs is to replace the current signage, that is a corrugated cardboard sign, that is very minimally weather resistant and would not last the winter. o They have different designs and different looks; we were trying to make the consistent theme throughout town. o Having the rules for the beach, the Marginal Way and everywhere else, sidewalks or a business or town building, would be three signs that would look similar. o The special rules for the beach would be on there; the 12-foot distancing for groups and masks are required on the Marginal Way as opposed to if cannot totally distance on Marginal Way sign. o The three signs that have come up with look like each other, they look similar in design to the current Marginal Way or Beach Rules signs. o Took input back and made some of the text bigger, removed some of the superfluous information on them. o Condensed that into useful signs, compact as far as messaging goes o Signs will be similar in size to a “no parking” sign or even a speed limit sign depending on the area. o The only caveat to the signage is that going to continue to use of the “Masks Required” blue sign on the Marginal Way in addition to the rules, because that was at the very special rule and area and it was very effective for us. o Must get the signs ordered by tomorrow morning, must have them paid for before end of October. Page 8 of 11

o Little bit time sensitive. o Some of the concerns that we came up with - would they be visible in the snow, hopefully they sort of mimic the state signs that are now already at entrances to the state borders, which are white and red and also have rather large black letters on a white background, much like a speed limit sign. o These would be more of a permanent sign installation that would be weather resistant. o Stated that they had focused on signage and had no report on notification for this meeting. o Made the commitment to be as transparent as possibly could and would be directing people to the appropriate resource as opposed to creating the resource. o Not confirming cases until the CDC confirms cases. If are aware of an outbreak or when we become aware of an outbreak will direct people to that information that the state has curated for us. o Did talk about having one place where could direct people, think the best area would be the COVID-19 informational section on the Town's website, can direct people to the information that the CDC publishes. o Lt. Buttrick stated that he would write up something for the Town’s website.

Comments/questions:  Pamela Sawyer  Alice Pearce  Rick Barber  Terry Ann Lunt  Bob Whitelaw  Rebecca Fox

 Beach Congestion

Rebecca Fox

o The beach congestion discussion has four sections to it. o The first section - dealt with half of it last time. That was the recommendation to the Select Board for another entranceway and to explore that. Page 9 of 11 o The second was the path around the Norsemen, are gathering some information about that and hopefully have that at the next meeting. o The fourth section has a lot to do with parking and the lots. The suggestion was to ask Visitor Services if they would attend our next meeting so that could ask them their opinion and what kind of feedback they have gotten from their staff. Some of those issues can wait. o And so that means dealing with Section two and three which mostly has to do with beach capacity and tides. Should preserve the maps that were made at the beach and the calculation of beach capacity and the ideas received from Mike Blazejowski about creating a walkway at high tide. o Thought it might be worth discussing the tides. o One idea we had was to generally to advertise the issue of congestion with high tide more than we do. o The idea was that when you checked into a lodging you would get a tide chart with an explanation that at high tide the beaches are more congested, it's much smaller. o Have the electronic signs on Route One north and south saying high tide at one o'clock - beach congestion (or something like that) or parking lots full. o Thought might be a discussion topic for today if people have feedback, opinions, suggestions.

Lt. Buttrick o Had a couple of meetings with a vendor that does applications. A couple of things ran up against were price point, was prohibitively expensive. They thought that what we were wanting the app to do as far as notification notifications about either outbreaks, information around COVID, tide information of the parking lots being full, were probably already doing on a different platform, whether it's Facebook or something else. o Did have the potential to use some Maine COVID money for the app this year, the recurring costs of the app were beyond what we could enter into without going before the Budget Review Committee or the Select Board for it; didn't think that were going to be able to get any kind of value for the kind of money that they were looking for.

Comments/questions:  Alice Pearce Page 10 of 11

 Rick Barber  Pamela Sawyer

7. New Business

Terry Ann Lunt

Suggested that put together an interim action report, prepare and provide the Select Board with something that really looks at what the Task Force did over the past season, what didn’t do, what worked, what didn’t work, what were the results so that have some codification and something that can be worked with going forward.

Thought having somebody from the Business working group, somebody from the Data working group and potentially somebody from the Public Health working group, to generate a document that everybody on the Task Force could weigh into or the subgroups could convene and look at it together and make any recommendations.

Comments/questions:  Rebecca Fox  Bob Whitelaw  Pamela Sawyer  Rick Barber  Rebecca Fox  Buzzy Roy  Alice Pearce

Chair Whitelaw stated the best methodology is to have the subgroups work together and that should expect something from each subgroup on October 28th. It was suggested from the Task Force that the first discussion on this be held on November 18th. (There will only be one meeting in November.)

8. Public Comment

 Muriel Freedman

Page 11 of 11

9. Any Motions for recommendations to the Select Board

There were no motions for recommendations to the Select Board.

10. Adjourn

Motion made by Buzzy Roy and second by Terry Ann Lunt to adjourn the meeting at 5:40pm; approved 7-0, Bridges and LaFlamme absent.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl L. Emery Administrative Assistant to the Town Manager