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public health

Health officials say COVID-19 is in an uptick, but not as deadly as previous waves

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LOWELL — The COVID-19 pandemic may be in the rearview mirror for many, but an ongoing bump in the number of reported cases is serving as a reminder that the virus is still present and is unlikely to disappear any time soon.

The region is experiencing a relatively small spike in the number of COVID-19 cases at a time of year that does not typically see high transmission of respiratory viruses. To Tufts Medicine System Chief Infection Control Officer Dr. Shira Doron, the current spread of the virus is indicative that it has yet to “settle in” to the typical seasonal patterns seen in other respiratory infections like influenza.

Doron said Aug. 31 that the bump in cases right now is quite minor compared to the more severe waves earlier in the pandemic, both in the number of cases being reported and in the severity of the cases on average thanks in large part to the immunity that has been built up between prior infections and vaccinations.

“Case by case today, COVID is less deadly than the flu,” said Doron.

The actual number of acute cases and deaths from COVID-19, Doron said, is currently higher than that of the flu, largely because there is a lot more of the COVID virus going around than the flu, which itself settled back into its typical seasonal patterns after it had been disrupted by social distancing and general isolation during the pandemic.

Doron said she conducted research in which hospitals would report whether they gave a COVID-19 patient any of the various treatments that have been made available to treat severe cases. In that research, she said she found that the number of patients with COVID-19 who needed these treatments has fallen.

“In January 2022, 50% of those in the hospital got those meds,” said Doron. “By that April, it had dropped to about 30%, where it has remained ever since.”

One of the best ways to mitigate one’s personal risk from COVID-19, Doron said, is by taking care of one’s general health before they ever get sick.

“This is the time to optimize underlying health while cases are relatively low,” said Doron. “You can’t change your age, which is the No. 1 risk factor, but you can get things like diabetes and hypertension under control, and you can practice good hygiene.”

As has been said countless times since the pandemic began, good hygiene consists of properly washing your hands often, refraining from touching your face and staying away from people who are sick, or keeping away from others when you are sick yourself.

While millions sought out the original doses of the COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 and 2022, Doron said that vaccination against the virus is beginning to look like that of influenza, where a new version of the vaccine is made annually to target the specific strains that are expected to be prominent in any given year.

An updated version of the vaccine is expected to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the coming days, and it would target the current most prominent variants of COVID-19.

“The new recommendation is to get one dose of the most up-to-date vaccine,” said Doron. “They got rid of the concept of the primary series and how many boosters you have. You now either have the latest booster, or you have nothing.”

The uptick in cases is playing out similarly in other parts of the state. Dr. Kimi Kobayashi, interim co-president of UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, said that in recent months, before the current uptick, COVID-19 hospitalizations appeared to be close to an all-time low. With the number of mutations the virus has undergone in almost three years, Kobayashi said the virus is continuing the trend of becoming more transmissible.

“The more recent variants have become more transmissible, but also less deadly,” said Kobayashi. “In general, we are not seeing the sort of mortality we saw early on with strains like delta.”

The disease can still be severe for those with underlying comorbidities, and Kobayashi said those people should not be forgotten.

“What we often see is patients who are already vulnerable in their health, COVID is still a real thing for them,” said Kobayashi. “If you go out it may seem like there is no pandemic, but it is still out there.”

NABH stops service for visiting nurses, hospice

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AYER — The Nashoba Associated Boards of Health are “saddened” to announce the closing of their visiting nurse and hospice services effective immediately.

The agency “has provided personalized, expert skilled nursing and end-of-life care in people’s homes for over sixty years,” said an email.

The Nashoba Associated Boards of Health (NABH) is a regional health department with member towns of Ashburnham, Ashby, Ayer, Berlin, Bolton, Boxborough, Devens, Dunstable, Groton, Harvard, Lancaster, Littleton, Lunenburg, Pepperell, Shirley, Stow, and Townsend.

In addition to NABH’s 17 member towns, the home health and hospice services also served surrounding towns upon request in the Worcester County and Middlesex County areas. Additional municipalities included Acton, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Clinton, Concord, Hudson, Fitchburg, Leominster, Maynard, Sterling, Tyngsboro, and Westford.

Both visiting nurses and hospice have been separate, fee-based services of a governmental non-profit Medicare-certified agency, under the umbrella of the NABH.

Unfortunately, that made them vulnerable to the “headwinds” of the healthcare industry, which a press release called a “challenging business” that made the services no longer viable.

NABH blamed the “current shortage of nursing staff” for making it “extremely difficult to hire and retain registered nurses” and the lack of “adequate staffing” makes it impossible to accept new patients.

They also said that the size — or what they call the “patient census” — “makes it difficult to be financially viable as our costs to provide services are higher, in most cases, than the payment we receive for those services.”

Despite a “lean operation” by management, not enough staff and the reduced number of patients as a consequence, “has resulted in many months of financial losses.”

At their regularly scheduled meeting on June 29, the NABH voted to shutter the home health and hospice services the following day, June 30.

The public health nursing service and collaboration with the elected boards of health in member towns will not be impacted by the closure.  The environmental health division enforcing local and state sanitary and health laws, regulations, and codes will also continue.

NABH has served as the health agent and provided public health nursing services for their member communities since 1931. Home health and the visiting nurse association (VNA) began in 1966 and, in 1995, hospice services were added.

Services available from the home health and hospice included skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, social work, dieticians, home care aides, spiritual counseling, and bereavement counseling.

“We know our community is feeling this loss as much as we are. Since the closure was announced, residents have been coming forward and sharing stories on the positive impact [the agency] has had on them and generations of loved ones over these many years of service,” said an email from the public health team.

They added, “We appreciate all of the support and fond memories our community has shared with us throughout this process. We are fortunate to serve a region of engaged, thoughtful, and caring residents.”

The visiting nurse and hospice services will continue for 30 to 90 days until all current patients are either discharged or transferred to another agency in the area.

The agency said patients will be transferred to other agencies “with a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) quality rating that is the same or higher” than theirs before the cessation of the visiting nurse and hospice services.

Local beaches close due to bacteria, algae contamination

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In the peak of summer, a number of local beaches are closing due to spikes in bacteria levels, as well as harmful algae blooms.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health monitors the state’s public beaches, curating a list of beaches deemed unsafe for swimming.

A total of 60 Massachusetts beaches are currently closed, the vast majority of which are caused by “bacterial exceedance,” including the Littleton Town Beach, Townsend’s Pearl Hill Pond, Ashby’s Damon Pond Beach and Westminster’s Crow Hill Pond Beach, the last three of which are state Department of Conservation and Recreation properties.

Chelmsford’s Health Department announced Heart Pond would be closed indefinitely, starting Monday morning, due to a “harmful algal bloom,” according to a notice posted on the town’s website.

Mark Masiello, Chelmsford’s environmental health inspector, said the state now has to visit to test the water and determine when they’ll reopen it. Heart Pond will be closed for about seven days, Masiello said, but that could become longer or shorter, depending on the state’s findings.

The town typically closes Heart Pond based on visible algae inlet, Masiello said, but the DPH will need to test the pond again next week, as algae can be hidden below the surface.

“A swimmer did say to the lifeguard [Monday] morning that when they were outside the swimming area, that when they got out of water, there was green all over their arms,” Masiello said.

Most common in the late summer and early fall months, algae blooms can be toxic and “release harmful gases,” according to the DPH’s website. Signs are now posted around Heart Pond forbidding people and their pets from swimming, wading or boating in the water, and those who do come in contact are asked to rinse off.

Lowell’s Rynne Beach was closed Friday for “high bacteria levels,” according to an alert on the city’s website. The Lowell Health Department stated the beach would reopen when those levels dropped, and the water would be tested every 48 hours. It’s unclear whether the beach is still closed, and Director of Health and Human Services Lisa Golden did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Nashoba Associated Boards of Health, which oversees, in part, Littleton and Townsend, did not respond to requests for comment.

Around this time last summer, the Tewksbury Health Department found three times the state limit of cyanobacteria in Long Pond.

Dr. Mattie Castiel to deliver Mount Wachusett Community College commencement address

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GARDNER — As graduates participate in Mount Wachusett Community College’s 58th commencement ceremony on May 17, they will be joined by Dr. Matilde “Mattie” Castiel, commissioner for Health and Human Services for the city of Worcester.

“We are thrilled to have Mattie join us for commencement,” said MWCC President James Vander Hooven in a press release. “Her leadership in both public health and nonprofit sectors, combined with her passion for working with the underserved and the greater community, make her ideally suited to address our 2023 graduates.”

Castiel was born in Cuba and immigrated to the US in 1962 and grew up in California. After moving to Massachusetts to complete her residency at UMass Memorial, she spent 30 years practicing internal medicine at UMass Memorial Medical Center and Family Health Center of Worcester and taught internal medicine, family medicine, and psychiatry as an associate professor at UMass Medical School.

Castiel founded the Latin American Health Alliance, a nonprofit organization in Worcester that works to address homelessness and addiction, and includes the Hector Reyes House treatment facility, two transitional houses, and Café Reyes a job training program for residents of the Hector Reyes and transitional houses.

In 2015 Castiel was appointed as Worcester’s commissioner for Health and Human Services. In 2019 she was awarded the UMass Medical School Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Service, the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Award, and the LIFT Community Hero Award.

In 2022, Governor Charlie Baker named Castiel to the Commonwealth’s Health Policy Commission Board, which oversees the HPC, an independent state agency that monitors healthcare spending growth and provides data-driven policy recommendations regarding healthcare delivery and payment system reform.

Health Equity Partnership of North Central Mass. seeks community feedback

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The Health Equity Partnership of North Central Massachusetts, also referred to as CHNA9, is looking for the input of 27 communities across the region as it crafts the Community Health Improvement Plan throughout March.

The CHIP is designed to be a “bridge between the most pressing needs in the community and a vision of a thriving North Central region where everyone feels safe, valued, and connected,” CHNA9 said in a press release. To ensure this is the case, CHNA9 is holding seven community meetings for area residents to share their feedback.

CHNA9 Executive Directly Chelsey Patriss said the CHIP is, “made by residents reflecting the diversity of the region and who share the power and responsibility to create the community of their dreams.”

“We are looking forward to hearing directly from people in our communities. Our current CHIP update will include the lessons learned during the [COVID-19] pandemic as well as integrating climate-related health issues in our region,” she added in a press release.

Meetings are set to last for 2.5 hours and seek to offer participants a chance to learn about CHNA9’s current activities and share feedback on what needs to be done to accomplish a shared vision of a healthy region.

There will be in-person meetings in five locations across the region, and community members are welcome to register for and attend the one most convenient for them:

• North Middlesex at the Townsend Meeting Hall on Saturday, March 11 at 10:30 a.m.

• East Quabbin at the Barre Library on Tuesday, March 14 at 5 p.m.

• Greater Gardner at the Clark Memorial YMCA in Winchendon on Saturday, March 18 at 10 a.m.

• Fitchburg/Leominster at the Spanish American Center in Leominster on Tuesday, March 21 at 5:30 p.m.

• Clinton/Wachusett Area at the Clinton Adult Learning Center on Thursday, March 23 at 9:30 a.m.

A region-wide virtual (Zoom) meeting on Thursday, March 9 at 2 p.m. and a region-wide in-person meeting at the DoubleTree Hotel in Leominster on Friday, March 24 at 11 a.m. are also planned.

Events are free, but advance registration is required. Food, child care, interpretation, transportation and other accomodations can be made available upon request. For more information or to register visit chna9.com/north-central-chip/.

Fitchburg to host Community Health Resource Fair

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FITCHBURG — The city Health Department will be hosting a Community Health Resource Fair from 4 until 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Fitchburg Armory, 14 Wallace Ave., Fitchburg.

“We are thrilled to be offering the Community Health Resource Fair after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19,” said Stephen Curry, director of Public Health.

Members of the community are invited to attend this free event and learn about available services, including housing and shelter, elder services, fuel assistance, medical care, mental health resources, cultural offerings, youth services, substance use disorder treatment and more.

Over 70 resource tables will be set up representing state and local agencies and nonprofits.

Several city departments, including fire, police, public schools, health, and veterans will be participating. The offices of Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Jr. and Sheriff Lew Evangelidis will also host resource tables.

State agencies taking part in the event include Department of Mental Health, Department of Transitional Assistance and Attorney General.

State Sen. John Cronin and state Rep. Michael Kushmerek will also provide information and resources.

“This event recognizes the social determinants of health — the conditions in which people are born, grow, work and age – and offer a variety of resources to improve the wellbeing of our residents,” said Sue Christensen, outreach and prevention coordinator.

The Fitchburg Health Department, lead community for the Montachusett Public Health Network, will be providing free COVID-19 and Flu vaccinations, blood pressure readings, and Naloxone training.

Throughout the event, free raffles will be drawn for gift baskets donated by participating vendors. Once again, the Fitchburg Holiday Decorating Committee will be selling refreshments to raise funds for the city’s holiday lights.

For more information, you are welcome to call the City of Fitchburg Health Department, at 978-342-9582.