NASHUA – The act of social distancing was not lost during Thursday afternoon’s press conference held by Nashua city officials in the emergency operations room at the Nashua Police station, to update the community about city’s response to COVID-19.

Mayor Jim Donchess was joined by Bobbie Bagley, director of the city’s public health department and Justin Kates, emergency management director.

“Our overall objective of course, is to keep our citizens as safe as we possibly can,” Donchess said. “We want to contain the spread of the virus and treat anybody who contracts the virus.”

The city’s goal is to prevent a spike in cases at either St. Joseph’s Hospital, or Southern New Hampshire Medical Center. Donchess recently spoke to a doctor and a nurse at a New York City hospital. He described the situation as something Nashua needs to avoid.

“Their words were, ‘Armageddon,'” Donchess stated. “Very crowded, way too many patients, people even dying in the E.R. That’s not where we want to be. That’s what we’re trying to prevent here in Nashua.

Detailed were measures that Nashua has in place, as community members join forces to strengthen the city’s front line of defense against the coronavirus.

Donchess heralded the efforts of many, including city personnel, hospital workers and healthcare providers, as well as grocery staffers who ensure the delivery of food to stores for the public. He explained some of the city’s primary goals, especially that of social separation.

“This is very important,” he said. “We need to keep people apart so if there is someone who has the disease and does not have symptoms, they do not spread it to others. We have closed our playgrounds and have ‘shut off’ the basketball nets to keep kids from congregating at basketball courts.”

Nashua’s parks, including Mines Falls and Greeley Park, will remain open. But Donchess did encourage the 6-feet-apart rule and announced the institution of a social media campaign to reinforce the idea that people should stay at home as much as possible. The campaign has been posted to the city’s Facebook page.

The city’s website has a comprehensive COVID-19 section, which provides details of the city of Nashua’s response to the potentially deadly disease. The site also provides information on business and restaurant closures and what essential city services are being provided and important public alerts.

City Hall itself has been closed for two weeks; police, fire, public works and garbage collection are still active.

Donchess described the coordinated effort to feed school kids with programs that are taking place in schools around the city.

“Nashua Transit has been working with the United Way and with many community volunteers to pack meals every day and deliver then to various sites around the city,” Donchess said. “There are four routes going on; we started Nashua north and each of four buses goes to sites around the city.”

With schools closed until at least May 4, the Nashua School department, along with countless volunteers, is continuing to provide meals for students with food insecurity, at 13 locations throughout the city.

Donchess warned of the seriousness of the pandemic, reminding that there are now 42 cases of COVID-19 right here in Nashua.

“Our public health nurses are doing a great job,” he said. “Not only documenting each case, but helping to care for each case and also, investigating all of the contacts that any person who tested positive may have had over the preceding days so that we can try to decide who should be quarantined, and help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.”

Director Bagley shared echoed the order for citizens to stay at home, as the number of cases and deaths nationally and internationally continues to rise.

“In New Hampshire, we’ve had 415 cases, 22% which have recovered, 14% which have been hospitalized,” she said. “At the health department, the public health nurses are investigating over 104 contacts, and are following those contacts, and contacts of those contacts.”

Bagley stressed residents should only leave their homes to get essential necessities – “you determine what that is for you,” she said.

As many people are working from home with businesses closed, Bagley said that motive is to shield people from public gathering and having contact with other people.

“Schools are closed, and our churches are closed for that very same reason,” she said. “Your staying at home is doing your part to help prevent infections and save lives.”

Experts are saying that many states may experience a peak from the disease in mid-April, such as in New York. And states like New Hampshire, may not see that number until late April, or early May.

“Let’s work together to flatten this curve,” Bagley said. “We are working with our hospitals in preparation for what could potentially happen. Our hospitals will not be able to take a huge hit or a spike in cases at one time. It is up to each and every one of us to prevent the spread of this contagious and deadly disease and maintain our workforce of each hospital.”

Bagley reminded that there is no vaccine for COVID-19 and symptoms present themselves differently in each individual; recovery rate for the disease is high.

“But there are some who may become very sick,” she added. “There are some who may get deathly sick. And there are others who may even die. It’s hard to know how different people will be affected. So, the best thing that we can do as a community, is to prevent as many people as possible from getting sick and stay home. I cannot emphasize that enough.”

Kates talked about the city’s emergency system and spoke about the action that Nashua has taken.

“The city started planning for the COVID-19 response in mid-February,” he explained. “The only reason that we engaged that early on is because we have a full-service health division that’s very robust and capable of handling all the activities that need to be done when you have a public health emergency response.”

With the office of emergency management, Nashua is working to coordinate all of the city divisions, departments and other community stakeholders so that the city is prepared for this level of response. And as March 16, the city began operating in a virtual emergency operations center environment. Kates noted that the press conference was being held in the emergency operations room, sans staff, who are currently working remotely from home.

“We’ve also had a daily team briefing with the unified command, here within the city at 10am, evening on Saturdays and Sundays,” Kates said. “The idea behind that is to have a cadence that we continue to try to ensure that all of our city divisions are aware of the most up to date info on COVID-19 as well as the actions that need to be taken throughout the rest of the day.”

Kates spoke about remote learning initiatives and actions, community distribution and the economic recovery task force, which is focused on the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 virus and the impact on businesses and non-profits in the community.

“They’ve been working to identify programs by federal and state agencies and what type of resources we can get to those businesses to keep them solvent,” he said. “And to ensure that they’re able to recover quickly after this is over.”

Kates added that a homeless support task force is working with the welfare department and shelters to identify services that can be provided.

“To enable citizens, businesses and other entities to be able to get to the correct agencies within the city for support, there is a COVID-19 hotline,” Kates said. “The phone number is (603) 589-3456.”

For further information, visit www.nashuanh.gov/covid19.

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