Pittsfield Sees Increase in COVID Cases, Remains in Yellow Incidence Rate
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases health officials are describing as "slight" that also have begun to subside over the past few days.
The positivity rate was 3.1 percent on Tuesday, a one percent increase from March 26 but a decrease from last week's metric of 3.3 percent.
The city remains in the yellow incidence category for transmission.
"What we've been experiencing these past couple of weeks is a slight increase in the daily cases," Director of Public Health Andy Cambi told the City Council on Tuesday.
"So it's interesting to see that we experienced something very similar back in the same timeframe of last year, there's just a difference in the upward trend that we experienced last year compared to what we experienced this end of March."
Cambi said the city has seen some days with more than 15 new cases of the novel coronavirus and others with fewer than five. On Tuesday, there were 12 new cases, on Monday there were 20, and on Sunday there were only two.
On Tuesday, the 14-day average for daily cases per 100,000 people was 23.9.
"We're still seeing a very gradual increase but also we see some days with some low numbers, so we'll continue to monitor that," Cambi said.
"Our best measures right now are the wastewater treatment plant that we do the wastewater testing on."
Over the past month, virus concentrations in the city's sewer have been in line with the estimated actively contagious cases per day. There were 67 estimated actively contagious cases on Tuesday and 76 on Friday.
Cambi reported that there is no current concern in the data in terms of a spike similar to what the city experienced earlier this year.
Four Biobot sewage tests are being conducted per week and the city is trying to include that graph in Pittsfield's community impact dashboard.
The public health director advised that residents continue to take precautions that they see fit regarding their own risk levels.
There are currently two hospitalizations for the virus at Berkshire Medical Center. Earlier this month, there were up to eight.
"We still do have a lot of at-home test kits available at the health department," Cambi reported.
"I encourage all city residents to come forward to the health department to get a couple of test kits to have available in case they experience any symptoms in the future, there's a lot available for our city residents."
Ward 2 Councilor Charles Kronick again queried him on whether the hospitalizations were strictly due to COVID-19 or if a person contracted the disease while hospitalized.
Cambi again assured him that these are the numbers for hospitalizations because of COVID-19.
In other business, the council approved a petition from Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren requesting to draft the ordinance amendment to reflect the abolishment of the Public Utilities Advisory Committee.
Last week, the Ordinances and Rules subcommittee voted to recommend the abolishment of the advisory panel that is not currently listed on the city's boards and commissions roster.
The Public Utilities Advisory Committee was intended to advise the commissioner of public utilities on all matters under its jurisdiction including sewers, water, solid waste, and resource recovery.
Tags: COVID-19,
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