By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – New Hampshire is looking for any and all medical professionals, retired or licensed out of state, businesses and anyone else who would like to help pitch in to help in the COVID-19 crisis as volunteers.
It is also utilizing the New Hampshire National Guard to set up temporary sites to be used as hospitals if there is a surge and the number of COVID-19 patients exceeds the number of beds available.
Gov. Chris Sununu toured one site with reporters on Tuesday at the Southern New Hampshire University field house for 250 beds while another was being set up at Nashua High School South. He said there will likely be about seven sites.
Jahmal Mosley, Nashua’s Superintendent of Schools, sent a letter to parents explaining that Sununu has ordered Nashua High School South to serve as a temporary hospital for the expected surge in patients because of COVID-19.
Sununu also ordered the New Hampshire National Guard to help set up the facility starting Tuesday. “We are compelled to help in any way we can,” Mosley said.
The athletic wing of Nashua High School South will serve as the hospital hub, he said, adding he didn’t know how long it would last. The school is restricted to all visitors, teachers, students and staff.
“In the meantime, I encourage you to continue to stay at home. Please take care of yourselves and of each other as our healthcare workers strive to take care of us all,” Mosley said.
Get Involved
Sununu made time in his Tuesday press briefing on the state’s response to the novel coronavirus to point citizens to a number of websites where they can help volunteer, donate and get involved.
Critical is the need for more health-care workers as the
impacts of the pandemic here grow, he said. Together with Lori Shibinette, the
new commissioner of the state Department of Health and Human Services, Sununu
directed people to https://www.nhresponds.org/
Shibinette said the
state can help remove licensing barriers for retired or active duty health
professionals from other states who would like to help with what is expected to
become a growing number of cases of residents who have contracted the virus.
She said it is an “all-hands-on-deck” moment for the state adding: “We
need your help.”
Sununu also directed people to the https://volunteernh.org/ website and asked those with charitable gifts to support the United Way at http://uwnh.org/ and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to its community crisis fund https://www.nhcf.org/about-us/community-crisis-action-action-fund/.
FEMA Frustration
Sununu expressed “frustration” getting “our pieces of the stockpile” of the necessary personal protective equipment needed for health-care workers through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He said residents should expect the number of cases in the state to go up fairly dramatically because the state is moving to increase testing three-fold in the coming days.
“We are going to see a huge surge,” Sununu said, “and it’s absolutely expected.”
He thanked citizens for heeding the public warning to remain largely at home and keeping distances of at least six feet from one another to reduce the spread of the virus and limiting gatherings to 10 or fewer people.
He also noted that more than 100 manufacturing businesses in the state have stepped up to the plate to see how they can help. They can go to the website https://www.nheconomy.com/ to get more information.
Sununu stressed the need for Congress to help businesses and employees that are suffering from closures and unemployment because of the virus and urged the passage of a $2 trillion stimulus package right away.
“I cannot stress that that has to pass, in some form,” Sununu said. “Hopefully they will be able to negotiate something out in the next couple of days and give folks assurance at the state and municipal level that the backstop for a lot of the costs that are going to occur is in check.”
On the Floor
As he was speaking, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., was on the Senate floor urging her colleagues to work in a bipartisan manner to pass H.R. 748 CARES Act.
“I think everyone’s goal is the same. We are here to address the suffering,” Shaheen said.
She gave the example of New Hampshire people working together with a story in the Berlin Sun about Gorham Paper company providing toilet tissue paper to local businesses and government agencies in need because of a lack of local products on the shelves.
Shaheen said just as important as it was to pass the act, “it’s important to get it right.”
