Maya McFadden Photo
Visitors this month to Lighthouse.
Out-of-staters will not be allowed in Lighthouse Park. A new duo of nurses, meanwhile, will hit nursing homes, schools, homeless shelters, and other facilities to spread preventive advice and check up on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Those are among the measures New Haven is taking to try to keep Covid-19 from sweeping back into the city.
Officials discussed those measures Wednesday afternoon during a Zoomed mayoral press briefing.
New Haven, like the rest of Connecticut, continues to enjoy a relative lull in the spread of Covid-19, while it rages in other parts of the country. Efforts now are focused on keeping it that way.
The city has to date identified 2,833 local cases of the coronavirus, with the number of fatalities holding steady at 114. Officials released new charts (see them below) showing that the numbers haven’t changed much recently — but also that the disproportionate toll on the African-American community hasn’t changed either.
Maritza Bond at Wednesday’s virtual presser.
Health Director Maritza Bond (pictured) said she was “really happy” to see no new cases reported recently at nursing home facilities.
She said she met this past week with landlords who rent to college students to discuss preventive measures and the city’s expectations as some students prepare to return to campus for the fall semester. She has also met with officials from local colleges and universities, she said. Those meetings occurred as latest statistics show the average age of New Haveners testing positive for Covid-19 dropping significantly — from 46 to 31.
The health department has also received a $100,000 grant to hire two part-time nurses and develop a Covid-19 task force to work together with local institutions to prepare for a possible renewed surge of cases. Jennifer Vazquez, director of public health nursing, said the grant is part of a collaboration between the federal Centers for Disease Control and the National Association of County and City Health Officials. The nurses will bring educational materials and do preparedness assessments at nursing homes, dialysis centers, schools, homeless shelters, and other congregate facilities, she said.
Meanwhile, the city will start enforcing a ban on cars from out of state at Lighthouse Point Park and conduct “aggressive enforcement of parking zone” restrictions on the surrounding streets, Elicker said. The city is limiting the number of cars at any one time to 225. The mayor stressed that New Haven is not banning visitors from other Connecticut communities, but rather following the lead of the state in trying to prevent visitors from Covid-battered states from bringing the virus back here. (The state currently requires visitors from 34 states to register and self-quarantine for two weeks upon arrival in Connecticut.)
The city has completed an agreement with Yale New Haven Health to move a Covid-19 testing center from Long Wharf to the former Strong School property on Orchard Street, Elicker reported. YNHH is in the process of making “slight physical changes” there before activating the site.
Elicker reported as well that 226 previously homeless people whom the city put up in hotel rooms during the pandemic have since found permanent housing with the help of partner nonprofits.
I'm glad homeless people are being found permanent housing, but more needs to be done for the homeless who haven't been seeking shelters.
I'm also glad they moved the virus testing from Long Wharf to a more transportation convenient location, but I'm concerned that the Orchard St location isn't a neutral neighborhood for rival groups of people who live in neighborhoods. New Haven needs a testing site in a "gang" neutral location so that nobody feels they are at risk for violence if they go there to get virus testing.
I'm glad New Haven is allowing anybody with a CT license plate on their vehicle to use Lighthouse Park. Too much of CT's coastline is excluding CT residents who aren't lucky enough to be able to live in a shoreline town.