EASTHAMPTON — The city’s Health Department is reporting the highest number of cases of COVID-19 for a one-week period in 2021 and city departments are going back to staggered schedules to maintain public safety and continuity of local government.
For the week of Dec. 8 to Dec. 14, the city had 85 active cases of COVID-19, according to Health Director Bri Eichstaedt.
“COVID-19 is running rampant right now and it’s concerning,” she said.
The number of cases began to rise after Thanksgiving, jumping from 24 active cases of COVID-19 for Nov. 11 to Nov. 30 to 80 cases from Dec. 1 to Dec. 7.
With Christmas and New Year’s celebrations right around the corner, Eichstaedt anticipates that cases will continue to surge. According to last year’s report, there were 92 cases reported for the week of Dec. 30 to Jan. 5.
Eichstaedt noted the importance of vaccination, pointing to a Monday press release from the state Department of Public Health showing that nearly 97% of all breakthrough cases in Massachusetts have not resulted in hospitalization or death. The review also found that unvaccinated residents are five times more likely to become infected than fully vaccinated residents, and that unvaccinated residents are 31 times more likely to become infected than fully vaccinated residents who have received a booster.
A Massachusetts Virtual Epidemiologic Network report for active cases in Easthampton by vaccine status shows that 49% of the active cases for the week of Dec. 5 to Dec. 16 were not vaccinated. Thirty-seven percent of all cases were fully vaccinated, 6% were partially vaccinated and 8% were fully vaccinated and had received a booster.
City departments have seen a rise in positive cases, according to Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, who ordered that, effective immediately, communication will be by phone or email as much as possible.
In addition to the standing indoor mask mandate for all Easthampton public buildings, LaChapelle also ordered that employees who share office spaces must stagger their schedules to eliminate sharing the area, regardless of spacing and vaccination status.
Employees who cannot work from home due to their specific work may use COVID-19 time.
The city’s public safety departments and Department of Public Works are exempt from the changes as those departments as minimum staffing requirements must be met.
“This is a careful decision that allows in-person access to local government while keeping employees and the public safe,” LaChapelle said. “Our departments are small. Some have two or three people. If someone gets ill, we lose half a department.”
The city is currently in the process of collecting employees’ vaccination status. At this point, there are 57 employees who are fully vaccinated — with proof —according to Emily Russo, Easthampton’s director of human resources. About half of them have gotten boosters as well.
“We are still in the process of collecting data on employee vaccinations. I would estimate about 75 to 80% of employees on the city side are vaccinated,” Russo said.
The city employs 250 people, both full and part-time, not including the school district, which has three unions for teachers, custodial staff and support staff. The school department is managing its own policies for vaccination negotiating with their unions. Collective bargaining units for city employees include the DPW Unit A Employees Association, DPW Unit B Employees Association, IBPO Local 367 (police) and Local 1876 (fire).
Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.
