GREENFIELD — As the number of COVID-19 cases and the death toll rise, city officials continue to track not only those who are confirmed to have it, but those who might have it but aren’t sick enough to be tested.
Danielle Letourneau, Mayor Roxann Wedegartner’s chief of staff, said Wednesday that although the city cannot confirm other people might be sick with COVID-19 because they haven’t been tested, they are watching those people and tracing where they’ve been and who they might have come in contact with during the time in which they showed symptoms and shortly before.
“We are responding to the needs of our citizens,” she said. “We are contacting people who are sick but haven’t been tested, and we are contacting people they’ve been in contact with so that we know what’s happening.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Public Health have said people can be contagious before showing symptoms.
According to Letourneau, there have been 74 confirmed positive cases so far in Greenfield. There were 17 COVID-19-related deaths as of Wednesday, and 10 people have recovered from the disease.
“The sample actually feels lower than it should be because of testing,” she said. “We need more testing, just like everywhere else needs it as well.”
Currently, an individual is tested at Baystate Franklin Medical Center only after he or she has received a clinical diagnosis from a doctor and the doctor determines he or she is ill enough to receive a test, Letourneau said.
Some doctors are clinically diagnosing people but telling them simply to stay home and wait it out because they don’t have severe enough symptoms to require testing, she said.
Letourneau said the state is receiving reports from Greenfield and reviewing the results from tests. She said she, the mayor and other city officials would love to see a time when everyone can be tested and the city could have a more accurate number of people who are infected.
Greenfield officials, she said, have decided they would rather provide more information than less, and will continue to provide daily numbers — even though those numbers might not reflect exactly how many people are infected because they haven’t yet been tested.
Those who have recovered had three days of no symptoms, needed no medications to improve for those three days and showed clinical improvement, including no shortness of breath, which can sometimes linger after other symptoms disappear.
“We’re handling this case by case and doing everything we can,” Letourneau said. “We’re working with Baystate Franklin Medical Center and are hoping to have more testing available soon.”
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-0261, ext. 269 or afritz@recorder.com.