As positive COVID-19 cases continue to rise throughout Franklin County and the North Quabbin area, health professionals continue to keep their eyes on the numbers and worry about what the holidays might bring.
The Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) met with members of county boards of health Monday for its biweekly roundtable, a check-in to see how towns are faring and to share information.
The state Department of Public Health reports that only one town, Sunderland, is currently listed in the “yellow” or “higher-risk” category, with 16 new cases over the two-week period ending Nov. 27. The “red” category is the only one higher than yellow.
While two local municipalities are listed in the “green” or “lower-risk” category — Greenfield Jwith 19 new cases and Athol (in Worcester County) with 15 new cases — all other Franklin County towns are listed in the “gray” category as “low-risk.” Montague reported 10 new cases and Deerfield reported six over the two-week period.
To be considered low-risk, towns with populations of fewer than 10,000 must report 10 or fewer new cases in a two-week period. Twelve Franklin County towns reported no new cases in that period, while another six reported five or fewer. Whately, Orange and Bernardston each reported five new cases.
The Department of Public Health’s data also indicates there were two deaths in Franklin County during the two-week period ending on Nov. 27.
“It’s getting difficult to keep up with contact tracing,” said Megan Tudryn, contact tracing nurse for Greenfield, who happened to receive a message near the end of the hourlong meeting saying there were three more positive cases reported in Greenfield.
Public health officials said when the pandemic first hit Franklin County in March and contact tracing efforts began, people would get a call to tell them they had possibly come into contact with someone who tested positive, and they seemed irritated and inconvenienced. Now, they said, people are calling and asking why they didn’t get a call if they know or suspect they’ve come into contact with someone who has tested positive.
“We’re over-the-top busy,” Tudryn said.
Heath Board of Health Chair Betsy Kovacs said her town has finally joined the “team of positives.” Heath’s four cases resulted from a cluster in a workplace.
“We aren’t sure if it happened there or during an outside gathering and was brought in there,” she said. “They did isolate before Thanksgiving, though, so maybe that helped protect others. It’s heartbreaking.”
FRCOG Director of Community Services Phoebe Walker announced that FRCOG has $75,000 to spend by the end of December on COVID-19-related items. Health leaders at Monday’s meeting all agreed there needs to be more testing.
Tudryn said testing is backed up and slow — at this point people are waiting up to four hours to get their test and five to seven days for the results, which she said is not helpful.
Members of various boards of health said even though they did as much public education as possible, they were told by many residents before Thanksgiving that they weren’t staying home or weren’t staying home alone, but were gathering with friends and family. Health officials are anxiously waiting to see whether there will be a surge in COVID-19 cases in the next week or so.
Walker said messaging might be another way to spend some of the money.
“We need to keep saying, ‘Stay home, wear a mask,’” she said. “And messaging from the state and organizations is constantly changing.”
Mark Maloni, FRCOG senior public health planner, said he will continue to compile information about COVID-19 that will be easily accessed on the agency’s website. It will include information about upcoming vaccines and how to understand them, as well as links to other resources.
Everyone at Monday’s meeting agreed that county towns will need to decide how to communicate with residents about the vaccines when they arrive. Maloni said towns should begin thinking about who should be delivering the message — someone trusted within each community so that the messages are effective.
FRCOG Emergency Preparedness Planner Laurie Solomon said towns also need to think about their audiences, whether it be people of color, seniors or others, and tailor the messaging to them.
“Everyone should be thinking about who are the supports so they can push the conversation about vaccines in a helpful way,” she said. “You need to get ahead of the messaging, not wait until the first vaccine is rolled out.”
Additionally, everyone agreed local health officials should also be looking ahead to the next holidays at the end of the month, worried that it will be a repeat of Thanksgiving or worse. They said if people aren’t going to stay put for the holidays, testing should be ramped up and people should be quarantining.
“If people decide to go away somewhere, I think we’ll have some issues when they return unless they get tested or quarantine,” Walker said.
Randy Crochier, regional public health agent for FRCOG’s Cooperative Public Health Service, said November was a “very busy” month, with 160 new positive COVID-19 cases reported across Franklin County.
“The numbers are up there,” he said.
Unfortunately, health officials said, the state Department of Public Health’s numbers don’t reflect “real-time” data — they typically lag by a week or two.
Because of the lag time, Walker said, even within individual towns and cities — after a person is exposed, and if they don’t realize they have been, it can be 10 to 14 days before they begin to show symptoms, if at all — residents could be exposing others without even knowing.
“There are a lot of challenges and it can be very frustrating,” she said.
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.