2026-10-22 - Board of Health

00:03No, it's not. Paula would never.

00:08Hello.

00:09Welcome to the city of Revere Board of

00:12Health meeting for the month of October.

00:14Please rise for the

00:16Pledge of Allegiance.

00:19>> [snorts]

00:20>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

00:22United States of America and to the

00:24republic for which it stands, one nation

00:26under God, indivisible, with liberty and

00:29justice for all.

00:35>> So yes, welcome to the October meeting

00:37for the Board of Health of City of

00:38Revere.

00:40First, I will introduce myself. I am Dr.

00:42Drew Bunker, the chairperson. To my

00:44right is Viviana Viviana Cantano, a

00:47board member.

00:48And then, invited municipal staff is

00:50Lauren Buck

00:52who's director of public health, Michael

00:53Wells who's health agent and director of

00:55inspectional services, and Paula

00:57Supleveda who is the Board of Health

00:59clerk.

01:01So for today, I'll first review and

01:03approve the minutes from September. So I

01:05ask

01:06Viviana if she'll

01:07approves those minutes.

01:09>> I approve of the minutes.

01:11>> I approve those as well.

01:14Great. And so the next thing will be the

01:16public health communicable disease

01:17monthly report with Lauren Buck.

01:20>> Thanks, Dr. Bunker. Um

01:22we've had some flu cases over the last

01:23month. We've had some COVID cases over

01:25the last month, but other than that,

01:26nothing crazy in terms of communicable

01:28diseases. From state national public

01:30health updates, um while the headlines

01:33have faded, the Ebola outbreak in

01:34Central Africa has not, and last week

01:36brought a concerning update. The

01:38outbreak of

01:39I'm going to say this potentially wrong,

01:41but

01:42Bundibugyo,

01:43a particular virulent strain of Ebola

01:45remains concentrated in the Democratic

01:47Republic of Congo, which has recorded

01:49more than 9,000 cases and more than

01:504,400 deaths since the illness was

01:53officially detected in May.

01:55In fact, Ebola has just spread to an

01:57eighth province in the DRC and um

02:01there are eight cases now confirmed in

02:03Kenya. This outbreak is expected to

02:05surpass the massive record-breaking

02:07outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and

02:092016. The risk to American Americans,

02:12however, remains very, very low. Ebola

02:14spreads through direct contact and a

02:16sick person's bodily fluids, not through

02:18the air.

02:19Next, the flu is off to an early start

02:21this year. It started in the west and is

02:23now up to 9.5% positivity rate in terms

02:26of tests. The flu uh will uh slowly but

02:29surely move across from the Pacific

02:31eastward to the northeast. Um and so

02:34rates are relatively low in the

02:35northeast, but they will increase soon.

02:37That brings me to my next um point from

02:39the city of Revere. Fol- um respiratory

02:42illness season is well underway and is

02:43the perfect time to remind people to get

02:45the fall get your fall respiratory

02:47vaccines. The Public Health Department

02:49regularly vaccinates on Wednesday

02:50afternoons from 3:00 to 5:00 in the

02:52Public Health Office at City Hall. We

02:54have flu and high-dose flu for those

02:56over 65 available. We also do homebound

02:58vaccine visits for those Revere

03:00residents who are unable to get out of

03:02the house. Please call us 781-485-8486

03:05to schedule a homebound vaccine visit

03:07over the next few weeks. We have flu,

03:09high-dose flu, COVID, pneumonia 21, and

03:11RSV available to our homebound

03:13residents. That's it.

03:17>> Great. Thank you, Lauren.

03:19Next is going to be

03:21the municipal report from Michael Wells.

03:25>> Thanks, Dr. Bunker. Um Inspectional

03:27Services monthly report for October. On

03:29the interior housing division, uh

03:31certificates of fitness, we performed 29

03:32inspections. Certificate of fitness

03:34reinspection, 16.

03:37Interior complaints received or in

03:38process, 11.

03:40Interior complaint reinspections,

03:42um

03:43zero, and interior complaint

03:45inspections, three.

03:47Pool spa inspections, one. Pool spa

03:49reinspections, one. And Safe Housing

03:51Task Force um inspections, we performed

03:54one.

03:55On the food inspection division,

03:57number of routine inspections was 39,

03:59number of routine reinspections was

04:01seven, number of complaint inspections

04:03were four, pre-opening inspections were

04:05one, temporary

04:07food licenses were 54

04:10through the fall festival.

04:12On the exterior sanitation division,

04:14trash violations,

04:16351 trash violations issued, carts out

04:19of improper time one, commercial vehicle

04:22residential neighborhood six,

04:23overflowing dumpsters 35.

04:26Um

04:27junk heap, automobile graveyards,

04:30parking on grass for 23, multiple

04:33unregistered vehicles six violations,

04:36rodent harborage nine violations,

04:38unclean unsanitary land overgrowth for

04:4170 violations. And that concludes the

04:42monthly report for October for certain

04:44inspectional services.

04:48>> Thank you, Michael, for the inspectional

04:49services monthly report.

04:51That is going to conclude this month's

04:53meeting.

04:54Um

04:56This is going to be the last meeting of

04:56the year, and so we will resume the

05:00Board of Health meetings in January.

05:02Thank you, all.