Rising Covid Cases In North County

The Berkshire Eagle reports that Amalio Jusino, who coordinates the Northern Berkshire COVID-19 Operations Center said.

“We’ve certainly seen a bit of an uptick, The region has been averaging about eight to 10 active cases in recent days."

Jusino called those numbers “manageable” and said he was more concerned about the increase of cases in Pittsfield and how that might affect the Northern Berkshires.

Thursday morning, more than 30 North County leaders joined Jusino for the first major logistical meeting of the operations center in a couple of months.

They discussed the spike of coronavirus cases nationwide and in parts of Berkshire County. Data revealed the Board of Health in a meeting held this past Tuesday showed that almost half of the city’s 50 active cases emerged in the last week, a majority of them from restaurants.

Six cases were contact traced back to a single unidentified eatery. Even with that in mind, The mayor at this point is not thinking about closing dine in-person dining at the local restaurants.

The city registered two new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, for a total of four active cases in the city as of Thursday.

There are no plans to move students to fully remote learning at this point, he said, except for a temporary pause in in-person learning for seventh and eighth graders at Drury High School.

The district announced this week that it would keep students in those grades home until Nov. 19, out of “an abundance of caution” after seeing one COVID-19 case at the school.

Mayor Bernard urged residents to continue to adhere to social distancing, limit contact with others, stay home whenever possible and wear a mask.

Schools and restaurants in the Northern Berkshires will stay open for now.