With Halloween Around the Corner, Pittsfield COVID Cases Decrease

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With Halloween weekend a week away, COVID-19 cases are decreasing.

Last week, Director of Public Health Andy Cambi reported that the city was experiencing a "mini" COVID-19 surge.  Around this time, the community impact dashboard reported an over 12 percent positivity rate, over 41 daily cases per 100,000, and around 100 estimated actively contagious cases.

On Wednesday, the positivity rate was 10.4, there were 33.6 daily cases per 100,000 and 81 actively contagious cases.  

There were 12 hospitalizations reported at Berkshire Medical Center on this day compared to the 18 reported cases early last week.

Cambi said that the city’s Biobot sewage testing is the most accurate way to get a gauge of COVID impact on the community, as the other metrics don’t include at-home tests.

The virus concentration halfway through this week was 1.8 million copies per liter, while it was over two million copies per liter at the beginning of last week.


Last week, the public health director reported that the city is trying to get the Bivalent booster in-house and working with the state to offer it through small clinics.  This booster contains a component of the original virus strain and a component of the omicron variant to provide better protection against the virus.

The city has been in the red incidence rate, which is the highest, for a number of months.

Parties and festivals have fully returned from hibernation during the height of the pandemic, the historic Pittsfield Halloween parade being one of the biggest comebacks.

This will be the 76th Halloween parade in the city after its two-year absence.

 


Tags: COVID-19,   Halloween,   


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Belchertown Stops Pittsfield Post 68

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Belchertown Post 239’s Cooper Beckwith set the tone when he crushed the game’s first pitch to left-center field for a double.
 
The visitors went on to pound out 14 more hits in a 9-1 win over Pittsfield Post 68 in American Legion Baseball action at Buddy Pellerin Field on Monday night.
 
Beckwith went 3-for-4 with an RBI and scored twice, and Chase Earle went five innings on the mound without allowing an earned run as Post 239 improved to 15-0 this summer and completed a regular-season sweep of Post 68 (12-4).
 
“He’s a good pitcher,” Post 68 coach Rick Amuso said. “Good velo[city], kept the ball down. We didn’t respond.”
 
Pittsfield did manage to scratch out a run in the bottom of the fourth inning, when it already trailed, 7-0.
 
Nick Brindle reached on an error to start the inning. He moved up on a single by Jack Reed (2-for-2) and scored on a single to left by Cam Zerbato.
 
That was half the hits allowed by Earle, who struck out three before giving the ball to Alex West, who gave up a leadoff walk in the sixth and retired the next six batters he faced.
 
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