The Berkshire Medical Center is urging Berkshire residents to join together for a community-wide moment of silence to pray for the suffering, to remember those that have passed, and to honor all of those who have loved and cared for them.
The moment of silence is planned for this Friday at 12-noon. Friday marks the first anniversary of the arrival of COVID-19 in the Berkshires.

The Berkshire Medical Center hopes you join the moment of silence and mark the moment whatever way you find most fitting. They also encourage you to share the information on the community-wide moment of silence with friends and loved ones.

We are not out of the woods yet.  Berkshire County is listed as "High Risk."  In fact, numbers have been going in the wrong direction this week. In comparison to March 8th there were 4.9 cases per 1,000 residents. Yesterday that number was 22.8 cases per 1,000 residents.

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The Infection Rate according to Covid Act Now, each person in Berkshire County infected with COVID-19 is infecting 1.34 other people. The site warns that if this trend continues the hospital system may become overloaded. As mentioned earlier, in comparison to March 8th there were 4.9 cases per 1,000 residents. Yesterday that number was 22.8 cases per 1,000 residents.

To date there have been 269 COVID-19 related deaths in Berkshire County. The total number of cases of COVID-19 in Berkshire County is 5,186. Monday 31 cases were reported and currently the 7-day average is 27.

The positive Test Rate in Berkshire County is low at 2.4%. That suggests that enough widespread testing is being done locally to detect most new cases according to the Covid Act Now website.

Also, according to the Covid Act Now, 35% of ICU beds in Berkshire County are filled suggesting that there is enough local capacity to handle a new wave of COVID-19 infections.

LOOK: Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

While much is still unknown about the coronavirus and the future, what is known is that the currently available vaccines have gone through all three trial phases and are safe and effective. It will be necessary for as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated in order to finally return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy, and hopefully these 30 answers provided here will help readers get vaccinated as soon they are able.

 

 

 

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