Dr. Harrison Pierce

COVID-19: New Canaan Health and Human Services Chair Urges Residents To Continue To Be Cautious

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Though thousands of New Canaanites are being tested and vaccinated at clinics that are filling to capacity and receiving high praise for their efficiency and effectiveness, health officials are urging residents to be cautious amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Even on the high side, some of the vaccines now being administered to town residents are perhaps 95% effective and “it’s still 5%” outside of that protection, according to Dr. Harrison Pierce, chair of the Health & Human Services Commission. “We have had three or four people locally who have been vaccinated and have gotten the disease, or at least tested positive,” Pierce said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Thursday via videoconference. 

“And it’s happening in the community, too. So we have to take all the precautions that we were taking previously and reinstitute them if we are not continuing with them. The travel issue is big and you are going to have to, via the DPH [Connecticut Department of Public Health]/CDC, you are going to have to quarantine seven days coming back and then negative test before you re-enter society.”

The comments came following a general update from New Canaan Health Director Jenn Eielson.

Dr. Harrison Pierce

Health Director on Complaints from Residents 55-and-Over: ‘We Have Been Getting Screamed At’

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As the town turned its focus this week to vaccinating New Canaan Public Schools educators following a state directive, residents 55-and-older who also became eligible for vaccine shots March 1 have been forcefully lodging complaints, according to the municipal health director. School faculty and staff members were “crying tears of joy” Wednesday during the clinic at Lapham Community Center at what Jenn Eielson called “by far the best clinic we have ever had.”

Even so, “This week has been awful for me,” Eielson said during a regular meeting of the Health & Human Services Commission, held Thursday morning via videoconference. “I’ve been beaten up beyond belief, because we are not doing the 55-and-over,” she said. “We have been getting screamed at every single day. So yesterday was a welcome relief of people that were actually happy.

Alicia Meyer

COVID-19: School Parents Concerned About New Canaan Families Extending Vacations During Week of ‘Remote Learning’

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Many New Canaan parents are concerned that some families are undermining efforts to keep the public schools safe by extending their vacations this week instead of learning from home as a post-holiday safeguard against the spread of COVID-19 virus, officials said Thursday. Theoretically, this week of school was designated for district-wide remote learning to give New Canaan families time, after returning from travel, to get tested and for COVID symptoms to surface, according to Health & Human Services Commissioner Alicia Meyer. Yet “unfortunately, a lot of people took it as an opportunity to extend their vacations,” Meyer said during the appointed body’s regular meeting. “At Thanksgiving, New Canaan Public Schools were requiring that kids who travel be tested when they got back to Connecticut, after they travel,” Meyer said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “But now, after Christmas, the requirement is just within the 72 hours of travel, so before they left their destination.”

She continued, “I have been getting a lot of emails from people concerned that kids are still on vacation right now, are going to be tested in Florida or Turks-and-Caicos or wherever they are, another day of vacation, fly home, crowded customs hall, and then roll right back into school, because they were tested before they left the vacation destination.”

“People just are concerned about this,” she added.

Dr. Harrison Pierce

Town Officials To Undergo ‘Ticket Training’ for COVID-19 Rule Violators

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Municipal officials on Friday will undergo “ticket training” with the state as New Canaan prepares to fine those violating rules designed to minimize the spread of COVID-19 virus in town. Health Director Jenn Eielson said she will undergo training together with local police and the first section, from the state Department of Public Health, Department Economic and Community Development and Liquor Control Division of the Department of Consumer Protection. “That is for the fines,” Eielson told members of the Health & Human Services during the appointed body’s regular meeting Thursday. “I have already ordered our ticket book,” she said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “Because as many of you are sure to know, tomorrow the governor is rolling us back to what he’s calling Phase 2.1.

Alicia Meyer

‘The Goodwill Has Been Taken Away’: Two Resign from Human Services Commission

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Saying they felt poorly treated in their volunteer roles, two members of a town body that oversees the New Canaan Department of Human Services on Thursday resigned from their positions. Judy Dunn, a member of the Human Services Commission since 2010 and its chair for the past five years, said in a letter read aloud at the appointed body’s regular meeting that First Selectman Kevin Moynihan had acted inappropriately in selecting the nine-member body’s next chair himself. Because the Commission had a quorum, the first selectman also had been incorrect in January to postpone an organizational meeting for the body to elect its own chair, Dunn said in her letter, and wrongly asserted that Commissioner Renate Dolphin should resign for missing meetings. “Mr. Moynihan said Renate Dolphin had missed three meetings and should be asked to resign,” Dunn said in the letter, read out by Commissioner Alicia Meyer. “He said I should ask her to resign.