WESTFIELD- Westfield Health Director Joseph Rouse said that the next several weeks are going to be critical in determining how Westfield continues to handle COVID-19 going into the fall and winter.
During the Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting last week, Rouse said that he sees the pandemic as being largely containable right now in Westfield, but that it could change quickly if people are not careful.
“We are consistently seeing days of [no cases] in a row and not a lot of new deaths. There are fewer and fewer people in isolation,” said Rouse, “We do have concerns about schools and the university.”
Westfield schools opted to keep a remote learning model at the advice of Rouse. Westfield State University, however, is planning on having students move back to campus at the end of the month. Rouse said that he has already seen off-campus parties happening locally, which could contribute to a spike in local COVID-19 cases.
“All it takes is one case to turn and spread it like wildfire,” said Rouse, “The next two weeks to 30 days are going to be critical for what our future is going to look like in the Fall.”
His chief concern isn’t necessarily that an outbreak will begin in Westfield, but that an outbreak will occur in nearby communities and spread into Westfield.
“With schools going back in Connecticut and other places not being as conservative as we are here, we need to see what happens,” said Rouse.
He said he expects the case numbers to rise at least slightly in the coming weeks and months, but that it should be controllable as long as major case clusters do not start forming.
“Anything that comes up, we can pretty much squash it,” said Rouse.
Committee Chair Deputy Fire Chief Eric Bishop said that the wider availability of testing has been very helpful in keeping the pandemic at bay locally.
Westfield had just three new cases between Aug. 27 and Sept. 2.
