Coronavirus East Haven: Officials Plead For Protective Equipment

EAST HAVEN, CT —Mayor Joseph Carfora, Police Chief Ed Lennon and Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli sought help from the local legislators about the "alarming lack personal protective equipment available for first responders."

"Firefighters and police officers will be on the front lines of this pandemic and need equipment to prevent their public safety professionals from becoming sick and unable to respond,” Carfora said.

The offices of state Sen. Len Fasano, US Sen. Chris Murphy and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro were "very receptive but the shortfalls came as no surprise to them."

“I need my people to have the right equipment or they may be getting sick and not able to respond,” Carfora said.

Marcarelli said that East Haven is ahead of other towns and cities but predicts that the supply in East Haven will not last very long. If predictions of the spread of COVID-19 are accurate, Marcarelli said that "pandemic estimates are about 40 percent of the population could be infected before the virus subsides and his members will be right in the middle of the event" adding in a press release that without "proper personal protective equipment (Marcarelli) ears firefighters may be sidelined due to exposure or illness."

Marcarelli and Lennon said they spoke to public health officials "in hopes that a cache of 144,000 N-95 masks that are expired can be made available instead of being tied up in red tape at the state level."

Marcarelli said an expired mask is better than none and at all and that’s a risk he is willing to take, he said his peers have shared the same sentiment.

The three also emphasized the importance of the release of the Strategic National Stockpile from the Federal Government and urged that time is of the essence. Lennon said that should Police Officers become sick or exposed it will only burden the already taxed hospital system and the intent is to flatten the curve so needed hospital beds are not taken unnecessarily.

Legislators "pledged to look into the shortage and delays and see what can be done to speed up delivery to the end users."

Anyone interested in learning more should call Marcarelli at (203)-468-3221.