NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Health Department is responding to what it terms “an incredible spike” in COVID-19 cases by offering free testing to the public and tightening vaccine and mask guidelines in certain settings. And in Holyoke, officials are warning of a “big increase” in cases as vaccination rates in Holyoke and Hampden County lag behind other parts of the state.
The Health Department issued a statement Friday “strongly” advising people to get vaccinated and receive their booster shots as the city faces a soaring daily case count that exceeds the peak surge numbers in 2020.
At Thursday’s Board of Health meeting, Public Health Director Merridith O’Leary said the city’s COVID-19 case incidence rate — the number of cases per 100,000 people — has climbed to its highest level in nearly a year. In the previous 14 days, she said, 160 cases were identified in Northampton; for most of the summer, officials had reported fewer than 10 cases at any given time.
The sky-high case count, though, is “not even capturing what’s happening out there in terms of community spread” because at-home test results are not reported to the state, O’Leary said. There are no confirmed cases of the highly transmissible omicron variant in Northampton, she said, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not circulating.”
About 93% of eligible Northampton residents have received at least one shot of vaccine, while 77% are considered fully vaccinated, according to the latest data reported by the state Department of Public Health. There were nearly 5 million fully vaccinated people in the state as of Dec. 11.
Starting Dec. 27, Northampton will operate a drive-through and walk-up PCR testing site in the Roundhouse Plaza Parking Lot on Old South Street. Any member of the public can use the free site on Mondays from 8:30 a.m. to noon and Fridays from noon to 4 p.m., except for on Dec. 31.
The state has provided Northampton with 5,000 rapid self-tests intended for distribution to the public, specifically to people most vulnerable to COVID complications and those who currently have limited access to testing. The antigen tests show results in 15 minutes and reveal whether a person is currently infectious, O’Leary said.
“It is important to note that if you wait for symptoms, it could be too late and you have already transmitted the virus,” she said.
The nasal swab tests can help to limit the spread of the virus during the holiday season when large indoor gatherings are more common, according to the Health Department.
Local shelters, low-income housing developments, food pantries and community health centers will distribute the bulk of the tests, and the remainder will be made available to the rest of the public, but with a particular focus on households that are experiencing significant financial strain or other barriers to testing access.
The Health Department emphasized that at-home tests are not accepted “for the purposes of returning to work or school when symptomatic, for exiting quarantine early, or for claiming exemption from quarantine, testing, or vaccine requirements on the basis of being recently COVID-recovered. … A PCR test at a medical facility is still the best-known test.”
Earlier this month, the Board of Health mandated full vaccination for guests of the Northampton Senior Center, effective Jan. 17, 2022. On Thursday, the board decided not to expand that requirement to include booster shots for those eligible, citing the short time frame.
The board issued a new recommendation Thursday that bars and restaurants ask customers to keep their masks on at all times when they’re not seated. The city’s mask mandate already requires masks in indoor public spaces — except when eating or drinking — and outdoors when social distancing is not possible.
During public comment, activist Chelsea Kline said “now is the time to be stepping up our requirements” for vaccination in order to enter bars and restaurants. She referenced a petition on MoveOn.org in support of a so-called vaccine passport that, as of Friday, has garnered 308 signatures.
“Implementing a vaccine requirement in all dining and drinking establishments will help make our community safer for all of us, especially the immunocompromised, those too young to be vaccinated, and the service workers who put their health on the line to keep Northampton running,” the petition reads.
A vaccine passport was not on the agenda, and the board finished its meeting without formally taking up the issue, but some members expressed skepticism at the idea. O’Leary said that making Northampton the only local city with a vaccine passport could have devastating consequences for small businesses.
Amy Cahillane, executive director of the Downtown Northampton Association, urged the board to move cautiously on any vaccine passport, saying “the burden of enforcement will fall on employees,” many of whom have “spent this holiday season being berated by customers about mask requirements.”
An Oct. 5 open letter from the Board of Health to Northampton businesses urged all employers to require vaccinations for their workers, and to offer paid time off to receive the vaccine and recuperate from any side effects.
In Holyoke, Mayor Joshua Garcia held a press conference Friday together with school Receiver-Superintendent Anthony Soto and Patti Mertes, chair of the city’s Board of Health. The three urged residents to get vaccinated, wear masks and get tested before gathering in groups for the holidays. Garcia said about 62% of city residents are fully vaccinated.
“I encourage the remaining 38% to please get vaccinated,” Garcia said.
Hampden County currently has the lowest vaccination rate of any county in the state. Some 68% of county residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine by Dec. 14, according to state data released Thursday.
“Of concern, however, is children ages 5 to 11,” Mertes said. Only 6.9% of those children have been vaccinated, she said.
Cases have also been on the rise in Holyoke as they are elsewhere in the state. The city had an average daily case rate of 67.1 over the 14-day period ending Dec. 11. That’s up from an average daily case rate of 31.5 over the previous two-week period. Mertes said that the city was seeing 50 cases per week at the end of October, but is now seeing 107.
“That’s a pretty big increase,” Mertes said.
Despite urging residents to wear masks, Garcia said that the city isn’t yet implementing a mask mandate. He asked Holyokers to do what they can to stop the spread of the virus — vaccination, masking, social distancing — to avoid that possibility. But he did leave open the possibility of mandating mask-wearing.
“My administration will mandate one if we have to,” Garcia said.
Soto said that teachers and staff have worked really hard to combat the virus and are feeling fatigued. But he said the district is doubling down on all of its protocols, working to get students vaccinated and reminding them of its free rapid-testing program.
Because of the school’s policy of daily morning testing for those deemed “close contacts” of someone with the virus, Soto said the district has been able to keep students in school learning. In total, he said the district has had more than 400 cases this year, though through ventilation improvements, masking and testing, the schools have been able to limit contagion within school walls.
As for why Holyoke students have a lower vaccination rate, Soto blamed misinformation about the available vaccines.
“The number one contributor is social media and disinformation out there,” he said.
Holyokers can get vaccinated in a handful of places, including by appointment at three CVS locations, at Holyoke Health Center for patients and at Holyoke Mall on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Care Center is also running a flu and COVID vaccination clinic Monday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at its 247 Cabot St. location.
There are also free testing locations run by the state at Holyoke Community College and the Holyoke War Memorial. The CVS at 250 Whiting Farms Road and the Walgreens at 1588 Northampton St. are doing testing by appointment, and Holyoke Medical Center is also offering testing.
The city has also been named one of 102 “high-need” communities in the state to receive free rapid COVID-19 tests from the state. Garcia said the city will share more information about the distribution of those 25,000 free tests in the coming week.