Alicia Meyer

Officials: Some New Canaan Parents Advocating ‘Don’t Test, Don’t Tell’ COVID-19 Policy

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Members of social media groups in New Canaan are advocating for people to not have their children tested for COVID-19 virus or to withhold positive test results from the schools, officials said last week. The parents in the groups want to avoid the district’s protocols about kids needing to stay out of school for a certain number of days after testing positive and wearing a mask for a period of time upon returning, Health & Human Services Commission member Alicia Meyer said during the appointed body’s May 5 meeting. “There are parents actively advocating for not testing and/or testing but not telling the school,” she said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “So that their kids don’t stay home for the full quarantine and don’t mask upon return.”

The comments came following Health Director Jenn Eielson’s regular update on COVID-19. In it, Eielson said that “cases are clearly on the rise,” adding that “to keep everyone in perceptive,” hospitalizations and COVID-related deaths “are still remaining steady.” She cited a statistic that hospitalizations in the state were up over 2,100 in January and were at 245 as of the governor’s most recent report this month.

Government

Town Teaming Up with Laurel House To Provide Services at Canaan Parish, Millport Apartments

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The town is availing itself of a Stamford-based nonprofit organization to help provide services to residents of affordable housing in New Canaan. Members of the New Canaan Department of Human Services “have found there’s needed services possibly at Canaan Parish and Millport Apartments, bringing some information and help to those that might need it but aren’t aware of it,” Youth and Family Services Coordinator Jacqueline D’Louhy said during the March 3 meeting of the Health and Human Services Commission. “So we’ve teamed up with Laurel House,” D’Louhy said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “They have a wonderful caseworker there that has offered to come to both sites.”

Laurel House offers a wide range of mental health services and programs throughout lower Fairfield County, including in New Canaan, according to the organization’s website. “Programs and services include recovery planning, life skills coaching and skill building, supported education, supported employment, ‘Thinking Well’ (cognitive remediation), housing and residential services, food service and wellness, social opportunities, and active outreach to individuals who might otherwise be isolated,” it says.

Alicia Meyer

Health & Human Services Commission Chair: Masks ‘Are Still Important’

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Mask-wearing, after serving as the first line of defense during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, now serves as the second line of defense behind vaccines, according to the chair of the New Canaan Health & Human Services Commission. 

A topic of much debate in New Canaan, the masks “are still important,” according to Dr. Harrison Pierce, a local pediatrician for more than four decades, 

“We know how they function,” Pierce said during the Commission’s regular meeting Thursday, held via videoconference. “They filter the droplets, the aerosol, and they do this with varying degrees of efficiency,” from cloth masks to surgical masks and N-95 masks. “If you are uninfected and you are wearing a mask, you decrease the risk of getting COVID by about 67%, and if you are infected and wearing one you decrease of giving it to others by about 75%,” Pierce said. “And if you are both wearing it there is about a 92% decreased risk of getting sick with COVID.”

The comments came during a a discussion on mask-wearing that Pierce said he added to the appointed body’s agenda after hearing from State Rep. Lucy Dathan (D-142nd) and Commissioner Jenn Hladick on whether the Commission had a position with respect to masks. 

The issue has made headlines recently, as Gov. Ned Lamont has asked the state legislature to extend his executive powers, including with respect to an order in which the governor empowers the Department of Public Health commissioner to set rules about what types of buildings require mask-wearing (including schools). In New Canaan, parents have spoken out at recent Board of Education meetings, and the school board is scheduled to meet at 2:30 p.m. Friday, in part to vote on whether to send a letter to Lamont and others in Hartford requesting “local control” in COVID-related decision-making.

Government

ARPA: Health and Human Services Commission Should Advise Town on Future Allocations, Members Say

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An appointed body that oversees New Canaan’s Health and Human Services departments should be doing more to help the town set priorities on spending what remains of $6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, its members say. The Town Council last month approved about $2 million in “ARPA” spending, including allocations for “premium pay” for school and town workers, greenlink sidewalks, year-round public bathrooms, a generator and marketing. Yet the Health and Human Services Commission “should be giving more assistance and support to our elected officials on priority funding,” Russ Barksdale Jr., a member of the Commission, said at its Jan. 6 meeting. “I did not see any priority funding given to our local or town Health Department, as an example,” Barksdale said at the meeting, held via videoconference.

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Moynihan: Town Employee Holiday Party Canceled Due To Lack of Response, Not COVID-19

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Hours after a staffer in his own office notified municipal workers this week that their holiday party had been canceled due to rising COVID-19 cases, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan denied the report, saying instead that it was “due to lack of response from Town employees who wished to attend.”

“We do NOT have a concern about local increase in COVID cases, which continue to be very modest in size compared to our population and produce very mild illnesses for those who are vaccinated,” Moynihan said in an email sent Tuesday to department heads, the Board of Selectmen and his office staff. “We continue to urge all Town employees who are not vaccinated to get vaccinated unless there is a medical condition due to which an employee’s medical provider advises against vaccination,” he said in the email, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. The party had been planned for Dec. 16 at Waveny House. It was to include appetizers, dinner and dessert, as well as beer and wine, and a $10 “donation” from attendees was due Dec.