WESTFORD — During the pandemic, drive-thru tents and testing sites became a regular sight to see, but as the world returns to normal and parking lots revert to their original purpose, organizations are already preparing for the next public health emergency.
Such preparation played out Thursday morning in the parking lot of Westford Academy, where the regional Health and Medical Coordinating Coalition (HMCC), joined by five Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) units and volunteers, collaborated with public health and emergency response organizations to practice setting up and taking down emergency dispensing sites which allow flu clinics, COVID-19 vaccinations, medical counter-measures for anthrax, and other situations when a drive-thru facility is needed.
There are six HMCC regions in the state, each designed to integrate capacity building across hospitals, EMS, long-term care facilities, MRCs, and many others.
This event was open to the public. The goal was to “raise awareness of public health, emergency management, and disaster response organizations that are quietly collaborating behind the scenes to keep area residents safe in times of hardship — including COVID-19 prevention activities over the past year,” according to a press release from the HMCC.
HMCC deals with 49 public health departments and when they discovered they had extra funding in their budget, they thought about where it could be put to productive use, said HMCC Project Manager Beth Robert.
Two large white tents held down with 250 pounds of weights were assembled in one hour and 20 minutes. Two generators were rumbling, and light fixtures hung in each tent. It was the first time they were set up and taken out of their boxes. They took about six people per unit to assemble.
“It’s important for residents to know if we need to add capacity, these units can be set up in a couple hours,” said Westford Public Health Director Jeff Stephens.
The tents each have two rooms, one side can be used for volunteers and the other side serves as the drive-thru. Depending on the volume of cars, four drive-thrus can operate successfully. A small trailer is able to store all of the equipment in town and be used anywhere in the 49 multi-regional communities.
If emergency use of tents is needed, a certain protocol would be followed by the health departments who needed them, said MRC Coordinator Nancy Burns.
“Area residents can take some comfort in knowing that response organizations are collaborating on (literally!) ‘blue sky days,’ and throughout the year, to prepare for a range of emergencies across the region,” she said.
In 80-degree weather, these folks assembled and disassembled the site and were very optimistic.
Participants in Thursday’s exercise came from all over the state, said MRC Coordinator/Director Liisa Jackson, all happy to come together and work toward the common goal of preparedness.
According to Jackson the MRC have staffed hundreds of COVID-19 clinics and testing sites, performed over 60,000 COVID-19 tests, administered over 25,000 vaccines, distributed PPE to 72 communities, staffed call lines and registered over 20,000 people without internet access for vaccine appointments. They also delivered over 20,000 meals, helped contact tracing for local health, staffed COVID-19 pool testing in schools, and staffed help lines with 19 different languages spoken.
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