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In Massachusetts, only Berkshire County is rated 'high' for COVID by CDC

 COVID-19  at-home tests kits.
Elizabeth Román
/
NEPM
COVID-19 at-home tests kits.

Berkshire is the only county in Massachusetts right now to be rated with a high community COVID-19 level, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC recommends people in counties with a 'high' community rating wear masks.

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Public Health Nurse Manager Pat Tremblay said she knows people are tired of masking, but if someone tests positive or is exposed, they and those they live with should mask at home.

After a positive test, she said, people should isolate for five days and on the sixth day, if a person feels better and has no fever without medication, they can leave home masked.

"Anybody who is wearing a mask because of exposure or having tested positive should not do activities that require them to take their mask off," Tremblay added. "So if you are at work, you should find a separate place to eat lunch."

Most counties in Massachusetts have a CDC rating of "medium" right now. Only three are rated "low" — Including Hampden County.

Tremblay said she believes the high rating from the CDC is a "seasonal surge" because it's getting colder and more people are spending time inside.

Pittsfield and many other Berkshire communities are providing free at-home COVID tests for residents. Tremblay said if someone has tested positive or been exposed they should send a friend or relative to pick up the free tests.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.

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