MONTAGUE — The Board of Health and Public Health Director Daniel Wasiuk decided at a Wednesday meeting to recommend that the Selectboard vote on whether to institute a mask mandate for municipal buildings.
The decision followed discussions regarding COVID-19 data and response during Wednesday’s Board of Health meeting and Monday’s joint Board of Health and Selectboard meeting.
On Monday, Wasiuk said he would wait for cases to double in the town before taking action to push forward a mask mandate in public buildings.
However, Wednesday’s vote to act faster and recommend a mask mandate in municipal buildings followed public concern that was voiced during Wednesday’s meeting.
David Harmon, vice chair of the town’s Library Trustees, criticized Wasiuk’s hesitation to recommend a mask mandate. He said he’d heard concerns from library colleagues and others in town as COVID-19 case numbers rise.
Wasiuk denied hearing similar concerns from town employees.
Harmon also questioned why Wasiuk and town health officials were keeping the range of their COVID-19 trend analysis so narrow, observing a lack of consideration for COVID-19 case trends across Franklin County.
“I think the idea that we’re looking at Turners Falls alone is having our head in the sand,” Harmon said. “Did you know that (those from other towns) are the students here in our schools?”
Wasiuk said his priority is to more closely monitor the immediate town area.
“It’s predominantly important that we look at numbers here,” he replied.
Eight positive cases were recorded in Montague from Sept. 12 to Sept. 18, according to the Health Department’s Monday review. This is on par with the eight positive cases that were recorded from Sept. 5 to Sept. 11. The data brings the town’s pandemic-length case count to 384 cases.
Out of the eight newest cases, one individual who contracted the virus was fully vaccinated. Seven were unvaccinated. Three people were between ages 18 and 35, one person was between 65 and 80, and four were children of undisclosed ages.
As of Sept. 16, 63% of Franklin County residents are fully vaccinated and 70% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the latest Department of Public Health statistics. Health officials and the Selectboard credited the vaccine for the reason recent positive cases haven’t yielded severe symptoms.
“The severity of the symptoms were moderate and not severe where they required hospitalization,” Wasiuk said.
Later in Wednesday’s meeting, Board of Health Secretary Melanie Ames Zamojski voiced support for the mask mandate.
“I really think we should have a mask mandate in town buildings at a minimum,” Ames Zamojski said.
No decision has been made regarding a mask mandate for the general public, but Wasiuk said the board plans to continue discussion and monitor the situation closely.
Elsewhere in Franklin County, mask mandates have been instituted for public spaces and private businesses in Greenfield, Conway, Buckland, Leyden, Charlemont, Gill, Rowe, Shelburne and Sunderland, among others. Whately requires masks to be worn in town buildings.
Wasiuk also addressed public concerns at the Monday meeting, including inquiries into how closely the town has been monitoring data from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, symptom severity and results from at-home testing that hasn’t been reported.
Wasiuk said while health officials have been attentive to UMass COVID-19 trends, they “don’t currently have a data system that covers the symptoms and how they occur” and have “not considered” results from at-home testing in town case counts.
“The home tests are becoming more prominent and being used,” he said, “but without concrete laboratory positivity and without that specimen being analyzed through a lab, we don’t consider it at this point.”
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.