WESTFIELD – The City of Westfield saw a spike in the number of new COVID-19 cases this week as the state and country as a whole grapples with what appears to be a third peak for the pandemic.
The Westfield Health Department reported 19 new COVID-19 cases and one death related to the disease this week with 15 people currently in isolation. This brings the total to 586 cases and 58 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
In Southwick, four new cases were confirmed this week with five people currently in isolation, bringing the total number of cases in the town to 85 since the beginning of the pandemic. One of those cases was confirmed to be from someone in Southwick Regional School, though school officials were not permitted to say if it was a student or faculty member.
They did reassure parents that the transmission of the virus to others was unlikely in this incident, though the proper guidelines would be followed to clean the affected areas and inform those who may have been in close contact with the individual.
Westfield State University reported no new cases of COVID-19 this week after conducting 1,337 total tests. The total number of new cases at WSU since the beginning of the semester stands at five.
A more complete picture of how many COVID-19 cases there are at WSU will likely be available next Thursday. On Oct. 15, WSU began its second round of mandatory asymptomatic testing for students and optional testing for faculty and staff. This mandatory round of tests will include every student on campus, whereas the 1,337 tests conducted before Oct. 15 were largely done at the discretion of students.
Between Oct. 9 and Oct. 14, Massachusetts had an average daily positivity rate of 3.9 percent, the second week in a row where the rate was near or above 4 percent.
