DEERFIELD — The Board of Health has approved a mask policy that requires all town employees to wear masks when they are unable to practice social distancing, effective Jan. 11.
The order, approved unanimously at Monday night’s emergency Board of Health meeting, also stipulates that all municipal meetings be held remotely and makes Town Hall open by appointment only. Masks will be required of anyone who enters the building as well.
“Basically, we want municipal employees to pay attention,” Board of Health Chairwoman Carolyn Shores Ness. “We can’t afford for our government to shut down. If you’re collecting a Deerfield paycheck, we ask you to wear a mask.”
The decision comes as the number of COVID-19 cases increase “exponentially,” according to Health Agent Alex White.
“It’s just going up,” he said simply.
White presented to the board a graph showing the upward trajectory of the town’s daily case count. In the last week, several days have seen as many as 25 new cases, compared to last month, when each day saw just a few new cases per day.
“What this graph doesn’t show you is all the at-home positives,” commented Board of Health member Trevor McDaniel. “The numbers people see are woefully inaccurate. There’s a lot more numbers out there.”
White, who has been sending cases to get sequenced, said up until last night, the cases in town were overwhelmingly the delta variant.
“With the emergence of omicron here in Deerfield, we really want to …. elevate the mask advisory,” White said. “The mask advisory should really be an order to make sure people are aware of the gravity of the situation.”
Shores Ness said the transmissibility of the omicron variant warrants the need for mitigating measures.
“For the next two or three weeks, I feel it’s going to shoot up and then hopefully settle down,” she said of positive COVID-19 cases.
Aware that the discussion of a mask order was coming up, Town Administrator Kayce Warren said she talked with department heads earlier in the day on Monday.
Public Works Superintendent Kevin Scarborough noted his employees have been required to wear masks at work for the last week, with only one person per truck, due to two recent positive cases in his department.
Shores Ness said the goal of the mask order is to reduce transmission in an effort to keep businesses open and the government up and running.
“We need you to pay attention,” she said. “With this order, I think it’s a really good step forward. We’re all going to re-evaluate this on a weekly basis.”
Shores Ness added that while omicron is the more transmissible of the two variants, delta — which remains the more present of the two variants in Deerfield — is the more severe.
“Please be careful,” she said. “For no other reason than you don’t want to get sick.”
As of Tuesday, 340 individuals had signed up for the Vax Bus coming to Deerfield Elementary School on Friday from 12:30 to 5 p.m., with slots still available. Registrations can be made at bit.ly/3GmGyGS.