Mayor Tyer Hopeful About Positive Trends, Next Phase of Reopening
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Following the Baker-Polito administration's Tuesday announcement of Phase 4, Step 2 in the state's reopening plan and health metrics continuing in a positive direction, Mayor Tyer is feeling hopeful for the coming months in the City of Pittsfield.
"Based on our data at this point, we remain in the yellow category but there is still some good news associated with our data," she said to the City Council on Tuesday. "Case rates are trending down, and vaccinations are rising."
Tyer presented the council with overall case data from March 23, which included the most recent peak at the end of March followed by a positive downward trend.
On April 12, the 14-day average case per 100,000 was 37.21 and on Tuesday was 24.38 per 100,000. The 14-day average positivity rate was 4.16 percent and on Tuesday was 3.02 percent. These metrics reflect the downward trend from the late March spike, she said.
Over the last 14 days, there have been three residents hospitalized for COVID-19, one of whom is in the intensive care unit.
Tyer said the Pittsfield vaccination program is running "quite smoothly" and she is "really pleased" with the percentages of residents vaccinated.
As of April 22, 48 percent of Pittsfield residents have received a single dose or their first dose of the vaccination and 32 percent have received both shots. By May 9, the city estimates that 44 percent of the population will be fully vaccinated.
"This week, we do have available 2,000 first doses for all three Berkshire vaccine clinics. Earlier today, we noticed that we had a high number of vacancies or appointments available at our Berkshire Community College vaccine clinic so we did send out an email to our employees, encouraging them, their families, their friends or colleagues their networks to sign up for these available appointments," Tyer said.
"The Community Health Partners, also known as CHP, will be receiving an increased vaccine supply through the federal government's vaccine program. This will allow them to host more mobile clinics throughout Berkshire County, including Pittsfield neighborhoods, and this work is going to be coordinated with the Berkshire vaccine collaborative."
Tyer said she felt the Massachusetts vaccine data was "very promising." As of Tuesday, 2.3 million Massachusetts residents have received their first dose and the state remains No. 1 in the nation for states with 5 million residents or more for the number of residents who have been vaccinated.
Massachusetts also has the lowest vaccine hesitancy rate, she added.
She gave an update on the governor's reopening strategies announced earlier that day, which include a relaxed face coverings order for outdoor settings where social distance can be maintained, the permitting of parades and street festivals, and the food requirement with drink mandate for restaurants being lifted on dates ranging April 30 to Aug. 1.
"All goes well, all industry restrictions will be lifted, and capacity will increase to 100 percent for all industries," Tyer said. "This is really positive news for the residents of Massachusetts, and all of it is possible because the people of Pittsfield have been doing the right thing all along by adhering to the safety precautions that have been laid out and by getting vaccinated, so if we keep up, we can finish strong here and by August, have a significant part of our economy reopened at 100 percent capacity."
Commissioner of Public Utilities Ricardo Morales reported that 33 to 34 percent of COVID-19 cases in the community are related to the UK variant according to the city's Biobot sewage sampling.
"This matches clinical information we have from the state on a state level that about 30 percent of the cases are related to the UK variant," He added.
Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi asked Tyer if she was considering opening City Hall full time when gatherings of 200 people are allowed indoors after May 29.
"So very, preliminarily, we were going through this today, and if everything goes as planned in terms of what the status thing and the data and what we're seeing, our goal is to reopen City Hall full time on June 1," she replied. "However, we will require that masks are worn whenever somebody is in City Hall."
Morandi also queried whether City Council meetings will be held in person after this date, to which President Peter Marchetti explained that the meetings may be "a little too close" so they are planning on possibly setting up in a location such as a high school gym.
"And I also want to look at the potential costs because we'll need to be paying overtime for custodians for a takedown of the gym after we're done. But as you know, the information that was released today is about five hours old. And I've already been working on trying to go to in-person meetings as soon as we can. So It would be my hope that the meeting starting in June will be in person," he said.
Marchetti added that he also needs to work with Pittsfield Community Television to make sure that whichever location is chosen, the meeting will be able to be televised.
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