With Halloween Around the Corner, Pittsfield COVID Cases DecreaseBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
02:02PM / Friday, October 21, 2022 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With Halloween weekend a week away, COVID-19 cases are decreasing.
Last week, Director of Public Health Andy Cambi reported that the city was experiencing a "mini" COVID-19 surge. Around this time, the community impact dashboard reported an over 12 percent positivity rate, over 41 daily cases per 100,000, and around 100 estimated actively contagious cases.
On Wednesday, the positivity rate was 10.4, there were 33.6 daily cases per 100,000 and 81 actively contagious cases.
There were 12 hospitalizations reported at Berkshire Medical Center on this day compared to the 18 reported cases early last week.
Cambi said that the city’s Biobot sewage testing is the most accurate way to get a gauge of COVID impact on the community, as the other metrics don’t include at-home tests.
The virus concentration halfway through this week was 1.8 million copies per liter, while it was over two million copies per liter at the beginning of last week.
Last week, the public health director reported that the city is trying to get the Bivalent booster in-house and working with the state to offer it through small clinics. This booster contains a component of the original virus strain and a component of the omicron variant to provide better protection against the virus.
The city has been in the red incidence rate, which is the highest, for a number of months.
Parties and festivals have fully returned from hibernation during the height of the pandemic, the historic Pittsfield Halloween parade being one of the biggest comebacks.
This will be the 76th Halloween parade in the city after its two-year absence.
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