GREENFIELD — With the recent increase of COVID-19 cases locally and statewide, the Greenfield Board of Health, in conjunction with Mayor Roxann Wedegartner, voted Wednesday to reinstate an indoor mask mandate for all people ages 5 and up, regardless of vaccination status.
The mandate, which goes into effect Monday, applies to all places in the city where the public is allowed to enter or interact with other people, including but not limited to restaurants, bars, indoor performance and event venues, hotels and motels, gyms, fitness clubs, salons and places of worship, as well as indoor workplaces and common areas of multi-unit buildings.
“This is very unpleasant for everybody,” Board of Health Chair Nancee Bershoff said Wednesday. “This is not what I’d like to be doing, but as a health care professional — and I’ve watched for two years this pandemic unfold — this is one of the things that we know is effective is wearing masks.”
Chief of Staff Dani Letourneau, speaking as acting mayor on behalf of Wedegartner, said while it wasn’t a decision city officials wanted to make, “the numbers are dictating the need to do this.”
“Keeping everyone safe and healthy in Greenfield is the priority,” Letourneau said.
As of Wednesday’s Board of Health, there were 86 active cases in Greenfield, according to Public Health Nurse Megan Tudryn. Of those, 41 are unvaccinated and 45 are vaccinated; six are hospitalized, four of whom are fully vaccinated. In all of November, Tudryn said, there were 165 cases in the city.
“(The numbers) continue to climb,” Bershoff said.
The conversation between public health officials Wednesday evening follows not only a surge in cases across the region, but the recent identification of the omicron variant in eastern Massachusetts. Omicron, however, isn’t the immediate threat, according to Dr. Armando Paez, head of the Infectious Disease Division at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.
“The surge right now we’re experiencing is due to delta, not omicron,” he said. “But the same rules apply for both: getting vaccinated, getting booster shots and following the rules … in terms of masking in indoor public places where you don’t know other people have been vaccinated or infected.”
Paez said Baystate Health has 107 patients with COVID-19 in its system, with 75 at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, about 11 at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, and the rest at various community hospitals.
“Some have breakthrough infections. … We don’t know how many have been boosted,” Paez said. “Around 20% to 30% of the patients hospitalized with COVID had been vaccinated, but a majority were unvaccinated.”
Omicron, meanwhile, is “an evolving story” and a lesson to learn from.
“The virus is going to evolve,” Paez said. “If you don’t think about the whole community approach as opposed to the individual approach, the virus will take hold on those who have not been vaccinated or … don’t respond (to the vaccine). The viral replication can lead to more variants that will adapt.”
He said the surge in cases is likely tied to the weather getting colder and people spending more time indoors together. Thanksgiving and increased travel has also played a role.
The increase in cases regionally and statewide has lead to other communities, including Montague and New Salem, for example, reconsidering mask mandates that had previously been lifted.
The Montague Selectboard voted earlier this week to implement a mask mandate for all town-owned buildings from Dec. 13 to April 4. The board, however, opted not to institute a town-wide mandate.
Following the town’s highest positive case count since January with 27 new cases last week, Montague recorded 46 in the week between Nov. 28 and Dec. 4.
Montague Health Director Daniel Wasiuk summarized the Board of Health’s vote to abstain from instituting a town-wide mask mandate as a matter of letting businesses and organizations decide on “policies as they see fit.”
Selectboard Vice Chair Chris Boutwell said he’d heard similar opinions from others outside the board.
“What I’ve been hearing in many communities is they consider it a personal issue up to the individual to decide whether they want to wear a mask or not,” Boutwell said.
The New Salem Board of Health voted at its November meeting to enact an indoor mask mandate, which has been in effect since Nov. 27. According to the town website, the mandate will be revisited at the Board of Health’s December meeting.
“Franklin County continues to have low(er) case counts than many other parts of the commonwealth,” New Salem Health Agent Tim Newton wrote in an email. “This mandate was renewed in an abundance of caution to keep case counts down in our community.”
Although Deerfield has not yet discussed enacting a mask mandate, Carolyn Shores Ness, chair of the Board of Health, said if the current numbers don’t decrease, it may be something officials have to reconsider.
“We have a high percentage of our population vaccinated, and people — like myself — if I’m outside somewhere going into a store, a lot of people wear masks, so they’re making the right choices without having a mandate,” Shores Ness said. “Quite honestly, if the numbers continue to go up, we will be reconsidering it.”
Deerfield has about eight active cases, which is more than its recent weekly average of two to three cases, she noted. Because of contact tracing, the town has been able to discern that the numbers are related to household transmission.
“We haven’t been able to get any of our cases sequenced … but there certainly has been a surge,” Shores Ness said, of the ability to identify variants. “We’re not sure if it’s the normal surge like we saw at Thanksgiving last year.”
The schools still have a mask mandate in effect, she noted.
“Masks do work in schools, and we’ve had situations where someone has had COVID and it hasn’t spread,” she said. “I attribute that to our wonderful staff and faculty being very vigilant and the kids being responsible.”
Shores Ness emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated, and for those who are ready for one — getting a booster.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), data shows that vaccination, while effective in preventing severe disease, becomes less effective at preventing infection over time while variants become more infectious. The booster shot, which received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA), provides further protection.
“Just like regular vaccines,” Shores Ness said, “you have to come in for your booster.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne