FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) - If there’s one piece of equipment that might make the difference between spreading the virus and keeping it contained, it’s an N95 respirator mask.
But just wearing one doesn’t guarantee protection. The mask has to be super snug, so droplets from sneezes or coughs can’t get in through the sides or the bottom.
Workers from every nursing home and assisted living facility in the Fredericksburg area learned that on April 14, when volunteers with the Medical Reserve Corps set up stations to show them how to get the tightest, and safest, fit.
Assisted living facilities worldwide have been some of the hardest hit by COVID-19. In Virginia alone, there have been 56 outbreaks, and at least 45 deaths, in long-term care facilities.
Rebekka Haney, a nurse manager at Paramount Senior Living in Fredericksburg, had never been fit-tested for an N95 mask before. She said many workers in her position typically wear basic medical masks in their daily jobs, but it’s been shown the respirator masks keep out more aerosolized droplets.
She had watched online training on how to do the “fit test,” but said nothing worked as well as seeing it for herself.
“I’m definitely a hands-on person, and I think a lot of people are,” Haney said. “Being able to learn from a professional to properly fit it makes you feel more comfortable to be able to do the same with your own staff.”
Likewise, Kristen Davis, a nurse at Fredericksburg Health and Rehab, discovered that the N95 she had was too big. She planned to take what she’d learned back to her facility to “make sure everybody else’s are fit properly to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.”
The hand-on session was provided by volunteers with the Medical Reserve Corps, or MRC, a group established to help local health departments. Volunteers train throughout the year on dealing with potential health care crises, but their busiest time-before COVID-19-had been during flu season, said Jessica Conner.
Conner is the MRC coordinator for the local health district and the nearby Rappahannock-Rapidan Area Health District, which includes Culpeper, Fauquier and Orange counties.
In the past, volunteers have set up free drive-thru flu vaccines at the Virginia State Fair, helped dispense medicine and assisted with various administrative tasks.
But as COVID-19 has tasked health care workers and first responders, it’s also put a strain on health department workers who monitor confirmed cases of the respiratory illness. Specialists also do “contact tracing” and notify those who’ve come in close contact with the sickened.
Cases between the two health districts reached 263 on April 14 - 188 in Rappahannock and 75 in the Rappahannock Rapidan-so that’s a lot of contacts to reach.
It’s a good thing the two health districts have more than 850 volunteers who serve both medical and nonmedical roles, Conner said. They’re among more than 13,000 volunteers statewide, including doctors who have temporarily closed their practices or school nurses no longer working, who are providing more manpower during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With their help, health departments have been able to “keep some of our essential clinical services operating,” such as maternity care, immunizations and services for those with sexually transmitted diseases, said Allison Balmes–John, spokesperson for the local health district.
Some volunteers help with the contact tracing; others man the local health district’s COVID-19 hotline, which operates weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The number is 540/899-4797.
Still others act as couriers for the departments or for patients who may be quarantined and need supplies. If they don’t have family nearby who can get them food or medicine, the MRC volunteers can fill that void, Conner said.
Because those over 65 are considered highest risk, they’ve been asked by the governor to do their volunteer work at home. Their tasks have included repairing some of the N95 masks that had been stored at Mary Washington Hospital and had dry-rotted elastic bands, Conner said.
The MRC has duties for people with all sorts of backgrounds, said volunteer Cindi Causey, a Stafford County resident who signed up after she heard Gov. Ralph Northam mention the volunteer corps in his daily briefing. She spent 22 years in emergency management, both for the state and Stafford, and wanted to share her work experience.
“There’s a lot of coordination that goes into something like this, and I have skills to bring to the table,” she said. “If you were ever going to help out, this is the time to do it.”
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact vamrc.org.
Causey was among about 40 people who helped with the all-important fit tests of N95 masks.
On April 14, volunteers with Stafford’s Community Emergency Response Team set up tents and tables in the parking lot behind the health department’s central office, near Chuck E. Cheese off Central Park Boulevard. Volunteers scheduled workers in 30-minute intervals to avoid crowds.
After nurses and staff members from area facilities found the masks that fit them best, they put large astronaut-looking face shields over them. Then, a volunteer sprayed a bitter solution into the shields.
If the mask didn’t fit properly, the person underneath definitely got an unpleasant taste, Conner said.
The workers also got N95 masks to take back to their facilities, along with the knowledge of how to use them, Lane said, “in turn keeping the whole facility safer.”
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