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Date: 1/25/2022
NORTHAMPTON – During a meeting on Jan. 20, the Northampton Board of Health discussed a plan to develop a subcommittee that would help develop best practices for businesses to combat COVID-19.
After tabling the possibility of a vaccine mandate for businesses and restaurants during their meeting on Jan. 13, the board felt that the best course of action would be to guide businesses through public health decisions with a list of best practices.
According to Board of Health Chair Joanne Levin, the list of best practices could operate as a checklist and show which businesses are following which health guidelines at their respective establishments, so the public is more aware.
Levin said the subcommittee would include some businesses in the city so they can have more input about what specifically works for them. The committee could also involve up two Board of Health members, but no more than that. The meetings would also be available for public access.
According to Amy Hutchins, the assistant health director for the health department, Inspectional Services is in the process of creating some tools for restaurants and businesses. One of the tools is to provide businesses with a template of COVID-19 policies.
Because businesses operate through different manners, Inspectional services are finding it best to create a checklist that owners could use to verify what practices they are able and unable to follow. For example, a business could mark a check next to “promotes the public wearing a mask at all times while in the business” if they indeed pursue that.
“All of it is recommended,” said Hutchins, when referring to the template in its current iteration. “It’s not something we’re enforcing that you have, but we’re trying to make it easier for them to have these ideas and to put them into place.” The template is currently in progress and is not finalized in any way.
The initial plan at the moment is for Levin to meet with Hutchins and Health Director Merridith O’Leary to establish what these best practices are and what would incentivize businesses to do best practices.
Updated Numbers
As of press time, 81 percent of the Northampton population is eligible for vaccination, while 78 percent have received a full series of vaccination. Forty-six percent of the population, meanwhile, has received the booster shot.
According to Vivian Franklin, the city’s public health nurse, there have been 1,078 new COVID-19 cases since Jan. 1, as of press time, which is 31 percent of the city’s total cases since the pandemic started. Despite this, the numbers do show signs of plateauing. Based on national and state trends, the city could see a decline in a couple of more weeks
According to Franklin, the number of COVID-19 cases within Cooley-Dickinson typically hovers around 20-25, with the hospital receiving as many as 28 patients, as of press time. Cases did drop within 25 during the week of Jan. 11 and 17, but there are still a lot of people who do not have a hospital bed that are being cared for in the wing next to the ER. Urgent care is still being provided right away, however.
Since Jan. 1, 45 percent of COVID-19 cases are those who are unvaccinated, while 31 percent of cases in that same time period received the primary series of vaccination. Twenty-four percent of cases, meanwhile, received booster. Franklin did note that vaccination data could present gaps since not every vaccination is reported.
“We can say that both the incident of infection and the prevalence of infection for unvaccinated individuals is still four times higher than both individuals with the primary series of vaccine and individuals with the booster,” said Franklin.
The next Board of Health meeting is Feb. 3 at 5:30 p.m.