Pittsfield Back in 'Yellow Zone' for COVID-19 TransmissionBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
12:19PM / Friday, July 08, 2022 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Following the holiday weekend, the city has dipped into the yellow incidence rate for COVID-19 transmission.
On Tuesday, the percent positivity rate was 4.3, down from 5.3 last week. To be in the yellow zone, a community must have 10 or fewer average cases per 100,000 people or have a 5 percent or less positivity rate.
The average case rate was 29.1 on Tuesday, a metric that has stayed rather steady since mid-June.
The city is still close to the red zone, which is categorized by having equal to or more than 10 average cases per 100,000 and having a five percent or higher positivity rate in a 14-day period.
There are 54 estimated actively contagious cases in the city with 14 new cases on Tuesday. There have been more than 12,000 cases total.
In mid-May, Pittsfield saw a surge that skyrocketed the percent positivity rate to almost 15 and the average case rate to over 130 cases per 100,000 people. There were more than 370 estimated actively contagious cases.
There are currently three patients hospitalized at Berkshire Medical Center who have the virus. During the time of the mid-May surge, there were more than 20 hospitalizations.
Though the metrics have decreased, the city's Biobot sewage testing is showing an increase. This testing is said to predict trends with the virus.
On Sunday, the seven-day average for virus concentration was 732.8 thousand copies per liter. A couple of weeks ago, the virus concentration was 366.1 thousand copies per liter.
Following the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's approval of vaccination for children under the age of 5, Berkshire Health Systems began to schedule vaccine clinics for infants and toddlers.
On July 9, the BHS testing and vaccine center will provide vaccinations for children under the age of 5 from 8:30 to noon. Each month beginning Saturday, Aug. 6, BHS will have pediatric vaccine clinics in Pittsfield on the first Saturday of the month, serving children under age 5 from 8:30 to noon and children 5 to 11 from 12:30 to 4 p.m.
Berkshire County's seven-day average on Tuesday was 33 and there were 105 new cases. In mid-May, the seven-day average was more than 130.
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