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Northampton Board of Health updates mask order

Date: 9/1/2021

NORTHAMPTON – During the Northampton Board of Health’s Aug. 26 meeting, the board received a presentation from Public Health Nurse Vivian Franklin about the current state of COVID-19 in the city and region before reviewing and updating the mask mandate put into effect on Aug. 11.

Many of the changes addressed in the updated mask mandate include when masks are required, including among restaurant workers for inside or outside dining, crowded outdoor events where physical distancing cannot be maintained, indoor venues, hotels, fitness clubs, salons, places of worship, indoor workplaces and common places for multi-unit buildings. Athletes will also be required to wear masks in dugouts and other common seating areas for all sports. The new mandate also requires all children over two years old to wear a mask at all times to fall in line with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

Masks will not be required when actively participating in a water based sport, in offices where social distancing can be maintained, or for performers and speakers at live events.

To start her presentation, Franklin said there were 50 cases of COVID-19 in Northampton over the prior two weeks dating back to Aug. 12.

“The landscape has changed drastically since the last time we met. Last time I reported 17 cases in the prior 14 days, I am now reporting 50 cases in the last 14 days. If you have been following the CDC tracker, Hampshire County has now moved into substantial transmission for the county,” she said. “We jumped up a little over 100 cases since this new wave of COVID-19 began in July.”

As of the meeting, Franklin said most of the current cases were between people from 20 years old to 29 years old.

“The majority of our cases right now are from 20 to 39 years old with lower cases reported for all other age groups. For 20- to 29-year-olds, that group does have a lower vaccination rate however when I look at the age group for 30 year olds that goes up to 49 years old,” she said.

As of the meeting, Franklin said it was an even split in terms of the number of cases between vaccinated and unvaccinated people but said that number did not shine the vaccine in as bad of a light as it may seem.

“We are seeing about a 50-50 split in terms of vaccinated and unvaccinated cases. That looks bad for vaccines however over two-thirds of our population is vaccinated. The incidence of infection is important because it lasts two and a half times longer for unvaccinated people than vaccinated people, so the vaccines are still doing what they are supposed to by preventing severe illness or death,” she said.

After hearing Franklin’s presentation, the board went through each change to the mandate to edit and discuss the reasons for each.

In terms of outdoor events, Public Health Director Merridith O’Leary said the intention of the updated mandate is to make sure people who attend events outside with people outside their household wear masks.

“Some of the events we have outdoors we know that space is limited and with the entertainment they provide there will be people who do not live in the same household that are next to each other for periods of time. We are trying to make sure people are masking up for this type of crowd,” she said.

O’Leary added that these events include fairs such as the Three County Fair or anywhere someone may be outside with people from outside their own household. For sports, O’Leary said athletes would not be required to wear masks if they go play in another community.

“This just covers the teams when they are playing in Northampton, once they cross city lines and play another community, it does not affect them there,” she said.

Board member Suzanne Smith said she was in favor of revisiting masks for participating players at a future date if there is evidence of spread.

“I think we could revisit the players themselves actually participating in the sport if we see evidence of spread within them later. I think we need to have a high sensitivity for any evidence of transmission at sporting events or among players and move very quickly in that case,” she said.

The board unanimously approved the amendments and all changes were implemented on Aug. 30.