Editor’s note: The following Tri-Town Health Department update was written by Amy Hardt, MPH BSN RN, Lead Public Health Nurse at the Southern Berkshire Public Health Collaborative, and sent out Friday, Jan. 21. It has been edited for clarity.
LEE — Thankfully, the slight decrease in recent cases that we’ve anecdotally observed in South County has held up (numbers are down 11 percent over the previous week), though not this is not as strong a trend in the county overall (down by just 2 percent). Remarkably, in the past 30 days we have experienced one-third of all Berkshire County’s confirmed COVID-19 cases (PCR positives) to date. And more likely, it’s been closer to half of our total cases, including the rapid test positives.
This week’s center graphic highlights Berkshire County booster rates – 50 percent overall, and over 70 percent for seniors. We really need to increase boosters among the rest of the population, as further evidenced by the recent burden of cases among those middle-aged and younger.
Even with numbers moving in the right direction, the sheer volume of recent cases and high test positivity rate (over 11 percent) indicate that we continue to see an extremely high level of community spread. This is still the time to wear your very best mask indoors in public and to give careful consideration to unmasked activities and socializing in large groups. Even with the shorter CDC isolation and quarantine guidance, most of us don’t have time for COVID. And for some, the health risk is simply too high to go anywhere right now. We need to keep those folks in mind, as well as our very strained healthcare systems. It’s worth noting that in other countries, the Omicron decline after peak has not been as steep as we would have liked to see. Our bumpy ride probably won’t be over for a while.
