AMHERST — The Board of Health voted Thursday to restore the town’s indoor public mask mandate, starting Wednesday, Aug. 18, in response to the spread of the coronavirus’s delta variant.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reports that Hampshire County now has a “substantial” level of community transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19. The level was raised from “moderate” on Thursday due to a case rate of 53 per 100,000 people in the past 7 days.
Southampton also announced a new mask advisory, encouraging anyone over age 2 to wear a mask indoors when not at home. The town also will require mask wearing in all municipal buildings regardless of vaccination status. The order is in effect until it is rescinded by Southampton’s health board.
On its pandemic information website, Amherst reports 16 active COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday and 2,854 total cases since the start of the pandemic. Jennifer Brown, the town’s interim public health director, said that for all of July, there were only three confirmed cases per week; in the past three weeks, there have been 17 total, including at least four cases of the delta variant.
“Things have gotten more urgent. … The numbers are on a rapid trajectory of going up,” said Brown.
The delta variant is twice as contagious as previous forms of the novel coronavirus, Brown said, and accounts for 85% of cases in Massachusetts “at this time.”
In explaining the delay in implementing the mask mandate, board members said they wanted to provide a grace period for the public to prepare. The mandate passed in a unanimous vote.
Exceptions include restaurant patrons who are eating or drinking, children 5 and under, singers standing 10 feet away from others, and anyone with a medical excuse. The board gave Brown the authority to finalize the language and make any necessary adjustments to the policy after it takes effect.
An outdoor mask mandate, which was in place in Amherst from August 2020 through mid-May, is not currently under consideration; neither are new occupancy limits for public spaces.
“We are very serious, but we really wanted to be thoughtful about what we’re doing,” said Brown.
A UMass employee and Amherst resident who spoke during the public hearing about the issue said he agrees “strongly” with a mask mandate and that COVID-19 testing should expand.
State Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst, said the mandate “should be rolled out sooner rather than later,” and offered to “amplify and advocate for what you need” to the Baker administration as the town fights the pandemic.
Brown said that vaccination data for the town includes residents of Pelham and many people who have residences in more than one community. The town’s official 40% vaccination rate is much lower than the state’s 64.5% rate, but may be based on incomplete data.
Board of Health member Stephen George said that the U.S. census shows the Amherst population is around 40,000, but as many as 12,000 college and university students may have left town before being counted in vaccination data.
“There’s no way those people could have shown up in our town data, even though they may have been vaccinated somewhere else,” said George.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.