How A Daily Zoom Call Became A Lifeline For COVID Response In New Hampshire’s North Country

The coronavirus pandemic has isolated a lot of us, but it’s also brought community institutions together in a new way. In New Hampshire’s North Country, a daily zoom call has become essential for leaders managing the fallout of the pandemic.

When the coronavirus shut down just about everything in March, including schools, Gorham Superintendent David Backler got on a call with his counterpart in Berlin, and staff from the hospital and local health centers.

“We realized that we had so many different stakeholders and different perspectives in our community, and we needed to find a way to get everybody together to be on the same page,” Backler said. “At first, it was a symbiotic relationship where we were just looking for resources.”

Back then, the pandemic was a daily cascade of unknowns: Is social distancing effective? Should we wear masks? If so, do we have enough?

It quickly became clear that no one could handle this crisis alone.

Institutions took inventory of PPE in the region and began sharing whatever they could. Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin had a limited number of N95s that health workers needed to reuse, so the Gorham School District lent the hospital a set of UV lights that teachers used to sanitize science lab equipment.

The 4 p.m. calls that started with school and medical leaders continued, and more and more people joined: The prison warden, the nursing home director, the fire chief, even the director of the Androscoggin Valley Chamber of Commerce, Paula Kinney.

Read the rest of this story at NHPR’s website.