Swansea, MA COVID-19 Resources and Info

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Towns of Somerset and Swansea To Host Vaccination Clinics as Part of Regional Vaccination Collaborative

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Regional Vaccine Collaboration Between Somerset, Swansea, Fall River, Attleboro and Taunton

Somerset Town Administrator Richard Brown, Swansea Town Administrator Mallory Aronstein and Somerset/Swansea Public Health Nurse Emily Lachance are pleased to announce that the Towns of Somerset and Swansea will host upcoming vaccination clinics as part of a regional vaccination collaborative.

The Towns of Somerset and Swansea will once again host COVID-19 vaccination clinics beginning on Wednesday, May 5. Clinics will be held on a weekly basis every Wednesday at the Somerset Fire Department, 475 County St, Somerset.

The weekly Wednesday clinic is a part of the regional collaboration between the Towns of Somerset, Swansea, Fall River, Attleboro and Taunton. As part of the regional collaboration, each community will host a respective clinic in their city or town on an assigned day.

“After weeks of close collaboration with the Fall River, Attleboro and Taunton communities and the Department of Public Health, we are now prepared to host our first clinic next week,” Public Health Nurse Lachance said. “These upcoming clinics will provide not only our residents but people from throughout the region with closer vaccination sites for them to utilize in any of the five communities.”

At the Towns of Somerset and Swansea’s clinics, individuals 18 years old and older who live, work or study in Massachusetts will be eligible to receive the Moderna vaccine. The Moderna vaccine is subject to change based on vaccine availability.

The clinic will be hosted in a drive-through manner with individuals entering into the Somerset Fire Station through the rear of the building using the entrance off of Clifford M. Holland Road.

“We are excited to welcome residents from across the state to our drive-through clinic beginning next week,” Somerset Town Administrator Brown said. “With our drive-through set-up, we will be able to ensure that social distancing guidelines are being followed while efficiently getting patients in and out.  Additionally, this set-up provides an alternative to the previously existing clinics in which residents need to visit large indoor sites.”

The clinic will begin with approximately 300 appointments per day, spanning from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

At the clinic, vaccines will be administered by appointment only. Individuals are encouraged to pre-register for an appointment with the state’s vaccine registration system. To sign up for the state’s vaccine registration system, click here, or call 2-1-1 for assistance with registering.

When pre-registering with the state’s vaccine registration system, patients will receive a notification when an appointment is available in their area and will be given instructions on how to proceed/delay should they choose.

“Hosting a regional clinic will once again allow the Towns of Somerset and Swansea to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to those in our region in an easily accessible manner,” Swansea Town Administrator Aronstein said. “I would like to thank all town officials who worked with the state and our surrounding communities to plan out the logistics of the clinics.”

Anyone with additional questions can contact Public Health Nurse Lachance at elachance@town.swansea.ma.us, or call 508-415-7129.

 

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Towns of Somerset and Swansea Enter Intermunicipal Agreement for Sewer Services 

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Somerset Town Administrator Richard Brown and Swansea Town Administrator Mallory Aronstein are pleased to announce that the Towns of Somerset and Swansea have entered into an intermunicipal agreement for sewer services.

The intermunicipal agreement for sewer services will establish a format for Somerset to provide services to a neighboring community. As part of the agreement, the Town of Swansea will receive sewer services along the Route 6 corridor to establish increased economic development while the Town of Somerset will receive additional funding that the town can use to support upgrades to their previously existing sewer infrastructure.

In addition to the upgrades, the Town of Somerset will also receive funding from Swansea businesses using the sewer services to help ameliorate losses from the closure of the Brayton Point Power Plant.

“We are pleased to announce this new endeavor following the many requests from local businesses in Swansea to establish a sewer system as a means to increase business plans within the town,” Town Administrator Aronstein said. “I would like to thank Swansea’s Highway Superintendent Bill Anderson for his instrumental work on behalf of Swansea in drafting and planning this intermunicipal agreement alongside Somerset officials.”

To fund aspects of the intermunicipal agreement for sewer services, Swansea will pursue construction grants for the town’s respective sewer services while Somerset will use funds from the town’s $646,559 Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant.

Somerset’s EDA funds have been used to develop the intermunicipal agreement and make several system improvements within the town. While working with the EDA, Somerset also plans to perform wastewater treatment plant upgrades required under the new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

“The signing of this intermunicipal agreement will benefit both Somerset and Swansea residents with a long-overdue reimaging of town services,” Town Administrator Brown said. “Not only will it help provide revenues to offset costs to Somerset users, but it’s a solution that helps protect the environment. Additionally, our plans for sewer services directly align with President Biden’s infrastructure investment plan that focus on waste water treatment, and as such we will allocate funding needs where necessary.”

At this time, Swansea is set to begin the process of establishing sewer lines along the Route 6 corridor with the hiring of an engineering service to conduct layout work.

The Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) has provided assistance on this endeavor with Don Sullivan serving as a liaison to the EDA for the Towns of Somerset and Swansea.

“In Somerset, under the assistance of SRPEDD, the EDA has provided investment on three projects worth more than $3 million to date with plans for additional potential funding. One of these projects is about to break ground in May,” Sullivan said.

 

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Towns of Swansea and Somerset Co-Host COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics for Phase 1 Individuals

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Swansea Town Administrator Mallory Aronstein, Somerset Town Administrator Richard Brown and Public Health Nurse for the Towns of Swansea and Somerset Emily Lachance are pleased to announce that the Towns of Swansea and Somerset have been successfully co-hosting COVID-19 vaccination clinics for those eligible to receive the vaccine in Phase 1 of the state’s distribution plan.

As part of Phase 1, the Towns of Swansea and Somerset began vaccinating police, fire and emergency medical services personnel on Jan. 12.

First responders received their vaccinations at a drive-through clinic at the Somerset Fire Department. The clinics, which can accommodate 300-500 patients at a time based on supply numbers, ran for three days per week from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. over the past two weeks.

At the clinics, first responders received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine. They will receive the second dose within the next 28 days.

To date, 670 patients have been inoculated with the first dose of the Moderna vaccine in the Towns of Swansea and Somerset.

“We are extremely pleased to see how efficient our vaccination efforts have been so far in the Towns of Swansea and Somerset,” Public Health Nurse Lachance said. “Now that our first responders have been inoculated, we will be administering the COVID-19 vaccine to the rest of the individuals in Phase 1 of the distribution plan. We encourage anyone eligible to receive the vaccine to do so, as this will help us further battle COVID-19.”

With first responders inoculated with the first dose, the Towns of Swansea and Somerset have begun vaccinating the remaining individuals eligible to receive the vaccine in Phase 1.

The remaining phase one categories include home-based health care workers and health care workers providing non-COVID-19 facing care. This does not include those who do not come in contact with patients, however. For more information on the types of health care workers included in phase one, click here.

Residents can register for an appointment on the state’s website, but should note there is a possibility they may be turned away on the day of their appointment if they don’t meet current eligibility requirements.

Clinics’ capacities are based on the supplies provided by the state, and as such clinics will accommodate patients for the specific amount of doses provided to the Towns of Swansea and Somerset each week.

Town officials will continue to monitor the situation and share updates, such as specific dates of when the vaccine may become available to more people, as that information becomes available.

The vaccine is expected to be available to the general public in April. To view the state’s distribution timeline, please click here.

Residents can receive periodical updates to which phases the Towns of Swansea and Somerset are in and who they are currently vaccinating by visiting here. For those with additional questions, please contact Public Health Nurse Lachance at elachance@town.swansea.ma.us.

Stay Informed about the Status of COVID-19 in Towns of Swansea and Somerset

According to public health data released on Thursday, Jan. 21, the Town of Swansea’s designation remains at “Red,” indicating a “high risk” of spread in the community. The average daily incidence rate for the Town of Swansea is 104.3 per 100,000 residents, down from 109.3 the previous week.

Swansea officials report that there are currently 233 active cases of COVID-19 in the community. There have been a total of 1258 cases in Swansea since the start of the pandemic.

Additional information regarding the Town of Swansea’s response to COVID-19 can be found on the Town’s website, www.town.swansea.ma.us and on the Town’s official COVID-19 blog, swanseacovid19.com. Residents are also encouraged to follow the Town of Swansea’s Facebook page for the latest town updates.

Additionally, according to public health data released on Thursday, Jan. 21, the Town of Somerset’s designation remains at “Red,” indicating a “high risk” of spread in the community. The average daily incidence rate for the Town of Somerset is 93.7 per 100,000 residents, down from 104.9 the previous week.

Somerset officials report that there are currently 243 active cases of COVID-19 in the community. There have been a total of 1491 cases in Somerset since the start of the pandemic.

As always, Somerset residents can learn the latest about the COVID-19 situation in Somerset by visiting the town’s COVID-19 portal: https://somersetcovid19.com/

 

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