L-R: Acushnet Fire Chief Kevin Gallagher, Deputy Director of Acushnet Emergency Management Edward Caron, EMT Courtney Rittenhouse, Acushnet COA Director Heather Sylvia, EMT Heather Francois-Vaughan pose with the new mobile testing trailer Acushnet acquired to conduct COVID-19 testing and, eventually, vaccinations. Photo by Jean Perry
Jean Perry, Neighb News Correspondent
Friday, 1/22, was opening day for Acushnet’s brand new portable COVID-19 testing trailer to supplement the town’s community-wide free COVID-19 testing operation.
The testing trailer was the thing Acushnet didn’t know it needed until an evening in November when Acushnet Fire Chief Kevin Gallagher, staff, and volunteers tuned in to a Providence-based TV channel airing the interview on COVID-19 testing in Acushnet filmed earlier that day.
“Right after that was a story on how the University of Rhode Island finished this trailer and was forced to return it,” Chief Gallagher told the Neighb News. “So, before they even got to the weather segment of the news, I was already sending out emails on how we could acquire the trailer for Acushnet.”
The quick thinking helped Acushnet beat out a slew of other suitors with the same idea — the rapid retrieval of a ready-to-go medical station on wheels equipped with electricity, heat, and a ventilation system — but just weren’t fast enough in their follow-up. The Acushnet Selectboard authorized the release of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds to purchase the trailer and the generator to run it, costing about $30,000 total.
When Acushnet started community COVID-19 testing in September, the weather was mild enough for staff and volunteers to provide the service outside in the parking lot between the schools. As the cold encroached, testing clinics moved indoors to the elementary school gym where an average of 300 nostrils a day undergo an initiation of sorts, the new rite of pandemic passage.
Acushnet Council on Aging Director Heather Sylvia (left) and EMT Heather Francois-Vaughan perform intake on a resident before Ms. Francois-Vaughan administers the COVID-19 test in the town’s new testing trailer at the Council on Aging Senior Center. on Friday, 1/22/21. Photo by Jean Perry.
This new trailer, although able to provide a continuous flow of testing with its two exam rooms while keeping the swabbers and the swabbed warm and dry, can’t serve all the hundreds of people that need a test on any given day. Still, as a mobile unit, the trailer can be dispatched all over town for the various so-called “pop-up” free COVID-19 test clinics the Acushnet Fire & EMS Department will announce on social media as it did for Friday’s pop-up mobile test clinic at the COA.
Anyone in Acushnet with or without symptoms can stop by a mobile pop-up and receive a PCR nasal swab test free of charge, and no appointment is necessary. Test results are available online within 24-36 hours.
“Acushnet’s (COVID-19 case) numbers continue to be high,” said Chief Gallagher. “We believe the more asymptomatic people we get tested, the better the community will be at slowing the spread.”
The trailer is still covered in URI graphics, but Chief Gallagher said it will eventually receive an external makeover. The trailer will also serve as a mobile vaccination unit once vaccines are available to the general public.
Acushnet’s new COVID-19 testing trailer still bears the markings of the University of Rhode Island, the original destination for the unit which has two exam rooms, and a generator to provide electric, heat and air ventilation. Photo by Jean Perry.
L-R: Acushnet Fire Chief Kevin Gallagher, Deputy Director of Acushnet Emergency Management Edward Caron, EMT Courtney Rittenhouse, Acushnet COA Director Heather Sylvia, EMT Heather Francois-Vaughan pose with the new mobile testing trailer Acushnet acquired to conduct COVID-19 testing and, eventually, vaccinations. Photo by Jean Perry
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