Covid-19 Updates: Bella Vista Resident Still At Hospital; Groceries Not Social Distancing

A Bella Vista resident who has tested positive for Covid-19 is still in the hospital in stable condition, and did not return to his apartment in the senior affordable apartment complex on the far east side of town.

And the city has received some complaints about grocery stores, bodegas, nail salons and barbershops not following the reduced occupancy emergency orders designed to stem the spread of the infectious respiratory disease.

Mayor Justin Elicker and top administration officials delivered those updates as part of the mayor’s latest daily virtual press briefing Thursday afternoon about the impact of the novel coronavirus on the Elm City.

The mayor also Thursday afternoon put out a call for volunteers in a new ​“medical reserve corps” to combat the crisis.

Elicker and city Health Director Maritza Bond said that the city now has 30 verified positive Covid-19 cases, though the actual number is almost certainly significantly higher considering the relative dearth of testing.

One of those local cases is an elderly resident at the Bella Vista senior apartment complex in Fair Haven Heights. Bond said that that man had presented symptoms consistent with the respiratory disease on Tuesday and had been transported to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he tested positive.

Contrary to what the city had been told on Wednesday, the resident was not returned to Bella Vista, but instead is still at the hospital and is in stable condition.

Bond said that Bella Vista staff ​“have posted signs in every single tower” of the five-tower, 2,000-resident complex. Those signs display public health tips about social distancing, frequent handwashing, and other measures designed to protect one from contracting the virus.

She said the complex has also restricted visitations and that staff are making daily well-being calls to check in on individual tenants.

“Most people are abiding by the visitor rule, but some people are not,” Elicker said, expressing concern about nursing homes and senior living facilities in other cities that have been particularly hard hit by the virus. He said that Bella Vista presents a unique challenge in relation to other local senior living complexes, like Tower One/Tower East, since Bella Vista is so large, has so many different points of entry, and has such a densely-concentrated population of seniors.

The mayor also pointed out that just over 40 percent of the city’s confirmed Covid-19 cases are among New Haveners between the ages of 25 and 59. ​“A big chunk of the positive cases are middle-aged folks,” he said.

Other updates from the Thursday press conference included:

• Elicker said that the city has ​“gotten a number of complaints about grocery stores and bodegas not promoting social distancing.” He urged stores to limit the number of people allowed inside at any given time in order to allow for customers and staff to keep six-foot distances between one another. He urged nail salons and barber shops and tattoo parlors that are still open to do the same. He said that, if the city receives a complaint about too dense of a crowd, he will send out a police officer to talk with the group and disperse gatherings larger than 10.

• Bond said that the city is still conducting ​“contact tracing” on the man in his 50s who became the first New Havener to die from Covid-19 on Wednesday. She said the city is doing ​“daily monitoring and checking temperatures twice a day” with people whom that man recently came into contact with.

• Fire Chief John Alston said that the staffers at the department’s training academy have been reassigned to the mayor’s ​“unified command team,” meaning that the department is not currently equipped to hold any training of new recruits. ​“That is going to have an impact on us financially” because of the subsequent need to pay out more overtime to existing firefighters, he predicted. Police Chief Otoniel Reyes said that the police department is ​“in the process of conducting background investigations on prospective recruits” and that several individuals are going through polygraph testings in anticipation of a potential academy class. ​“We are prepared to start” a new recruit class, he said.

• Elicker said that recent data that his office received from the state shows that public transportation usage is significantly down during the crisis. He said that Metro North train ridership is down 95 percent, bus ridership is down 50 percent, and car ridership is down 43 percent. ​“People not interacting with each other is critical to us overcoming this virus,” he said. ​“While it’s challenging, it’s also a really good thing that ridership and usage of public transportation is down.”

• The mayor said that the the city has ​“consistently found it challenging to identify staffing” for the planned 75-bed shelter at Career High School for homeless people who test positive for Covid-19 but do not require hospitalization. He said that the city is eager to open that facility, and that he hopes to ​“have some announcements in the coming days” about that facility.

• When asked about recent reports about the Elmhurst public hospital in Queensand other New York City hospitals being swamped and overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients, Elicker said that Yale New Haven Hospital ​“is working very hard to identify and clear more beds to increase capacity.” He said that the state is also working on identifying and preparing overflow sites for more hospital beds. He pointed out that hospitals around the country aren’t just struggling with bed space. They’re also struggling with staffing and available Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). ​“My hope is that in addition to the state working hard to prepare for this is that the federal government takes a more proactive role” in helping on those two fronts, he said.

• And when asked about the latest $2 trillion-plus relief package recently passed by the U.S. Senate, Elicker praised the bill’s inclusion of extended and expanded unemployment benefits. ​“We need to provide that bridge of support, not only for our businesses but for our community members. If we don’t have that bridge, then the economy will suffer that much more.”

Medical Reserve Corps

Click here to sign up for the city’s new medical reserve corps.

Following is a release the mayor’s office issued Thursday afternoon:

Today New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond urged residents to help out in the City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by signing up for the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). The New Haven MRC is open to medical and non-medical volunteers 18 years of age and older.

Mayor Justin Elicker released the following statement:

“We are facing many challenges in our response to COVID-19. There is a shortage of protective equipment for our first responders, like N95 masks, and people have been donating supplies; however, we need people to step up and help us on the ground. We need volunteers, doctors, nurses, and medical professionals to help out with our COVID-19 response by signing up with the Medical Reserve Corps.

​“Whether you are retired, active in your profession, a community member, or a student, we need your assistance in the New Haven MRC. There is a growing need for volunteers with medical experience and a role each of you can serve. Volunteers receive free training and then are asked to be available on an as-needed basis. You could be asked to volunteer on weekends, late at night, or first thing in the morning. New Haven volunteers may be deployed to a shelter or a public health site.”

Once trained, New Haven MRC volunteers would assist in the following tasks:
• Provide medical screening and support in mass care settings,
• Assist with patient tracking at planned events,
• Support medical countermeasures (MCM) distribution and dispensing activities,
• Assist with planned and unplanned public health activities.

Health Director Maritza Bond added, ​“By signing up to be a New Haven MRC volunteer, applicants will gain valuable emergency preparedness knowledge and experience through training, exercises, and real-world events. You will train and work alongside government agencies, federal partners, non-governmental agencies, and community partners. New Haven, we need your help.”