WESTFIELD – The Health Department reported exactly 100 new COVID-19 cases this week to bring Westfield’s pandemic total to 3,368.
As of Aug. 25 140 Westfield residents were in isolation with active cases of COVID-19. Still, no deaths have been reported in Westfield in many months.
Of the 100 new cases, 77 were unvaccinated. In the three weeks that the Health Department has been publishing the vaccination status of new cases, the vast majority of new cases have been among unvaccinated people. Last week 85 percent of the 72 new cases were unvaccinated.
Also last week, for the first time since the last surge this winter, Health Director Joseph Rouse said Westfield is in a state where the virus is able to spread among the community.
“Westfield now has an equivalent number of new COVID cases this week as we did the week of January 28 of this year,” said Rouse in his weekly COVID-19 reporting notes, “Please seriously consider getting yourself and other eligible individuals vaccinated.”
Westfield and much of Hampden County continues to lag behind the rest of Massachusetts in terms of vaccination rate. As of Aug. 19, 50 percent of Westfield residents were fully vaccinated, while 55 percent had received at least one dose. Hampden County, which has the lowest county-wide vaccination rate in Massachusetts, has a 51 percent full-vaccination rate. These figures include people who are not yet eligible for the vaccines, which mostly consists of children under the age of 12.
