WESTFIELD – The number of new weekly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Westfield continues to trend slightly upward as the state continues the process of reopening its economy.
The City of Westfield had 13 new cases in the past week, bringing the total to 471. This is a slight increase from previous weeks. The week before there had been 10 new cases, and the week before that had just six new confirmed cases, showing a slight but steady rise in the number of new local infections.
Local health officials have said recently that a slight uptick in cases is to be expected as Massachusetts continues its phased reopening to the economy. Westfield’s Health Director Joseph Rouse said that such an uptick in cases should not be concerning so long as the number of new cases remains manageable and multiple case clusters do not start forming. There are seven active COVID-19 cases in Westfield.
“Once people start having more contact with each other, you’re going to have a spike in the number. That wouldn’t be surprising and would also likely be temporary,” said Rouse on June 19.
One cluster of cases did recently form in Westfield in the C&S Wholesalers facility, Rouse announced Wednesday evening during the remote Board of Health meeting. That facility saw 42 confirmed cases, several of which were people that reside in Westfield.
One person in Westfield has passed away from COVID-19 in the past week, bringing the total number of deaths to 54. This was the first COVID related death in Westfield since May.
Massachusetts entered Phase 3 of Gov. Charlie D. Baker’s four phase reopening plan on Monday, July 6. This phase allows for gyms, casinos, movie theaters, and museums to reopen their doors to the public under certain conditions.
In the Town of Southwick there were two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the previous week, bringing the total to 61. Last week Southwick had been down to just one active COVID-19 case. Town health officials did not release information on how the new cases came to be infected. Health Director Tammy Spencer said that of the new infections in Southwick, just one remains active.
The slight uptick in new local infections continues to be contrasted by record breaking infection numbers coming out of other parts of the country. There have been multiple days this week in which the total number of new daily infections topped 60,000 across the U.S., with that number likely to only increase. The total number of infections in the U.S. surpassed 3 million.
States like Florida, Arizona, California, and Texas that were spared from much of the early surges of COVID-19 in the U.S. are now experiencing record levels of infections as some of those states reevaluate their reopening processes.
