WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Health on Monday discussed whether it is time to relax some of the COVID-19-related public health measures it has encouraged throughout the pandemic.

 

Although it never went the route of mandating steps like wearing indoor face coverings when a state mandate was lifted, the local board has continued to advise masks and made signage to that effect available to local businesses.

 

But that recommendation could come to an end as soon as next month if COVID-19 numbers continue to trend in the right direction locally and countywide.

 

"It seems to be that this variant, Omicron, had … a quick decline time," Health Inspector Jeff Kennedy told the board at its virtual meeting on Monday morning. "We're seeing in the county, the numbers I looked at this morning for Berkshire County, our percent positives are 8.72 – this is as of last Thursday. Just a month ago, Dr. [Win] Stuebner was saying it was at 20 percent, so it's pretty much gone down.

 

"Our cases in town are declining precipitously. Williams College cases are declining. And Williams College has a good procedure to keep its students protected. I'm seeing drops of a couple of hundred [active cases] a month ago … [to] we have 21 cases that aren't Williams College on the 11-day [window] and on the six-day, we have nine that aren't Williams College. It's pretty much insignificant right now.

 

"Our case averages are dropping. Our county vaccination is at 89 percent for at least one dose and 72 percent that they consider fully vaccinated."

 

Kennedy said the number of county residents who are "fully vaccinated," having received at least two jabs of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, is probably higher because of the commonwealth's recording mechanism that won't recognize a second dose if information isn't entered into the system exactly as it was the first time.

 

Kennedy distributed to board members a spreadsheet from the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission that suggests public policy decisions based on certain health metrics.

 

"This is something they wrote about how you start getting back to normal, how do you start de-implementing the measures that have been taken," he said. "It's dealing with percentages and vaccination rates and case counts.

 

"I'm looking at the county, and we've probably met those benchmarks to almost stop treating this like a pandemic and start treating it as if it was endemic, where it is something we're going to have to live with and leave it to individuals and organizations and establishments how they want to handle it to protect their people or themselves. It becomes an individual decision."

 

Kennedy suggested to the board that it might be time for it to stop recommending COVID-related measures in the community and leave it up to individuals.

 

"We're a little over a year into vaccinations now, and I think we've got the vaccination rates we're going to see," Kennedy said. "Those who are going to get vaccinated are vaccinated. You may get a trickle, but everyone's minds are pretty well set. And those who have underlying health issues or even personal concerns know that they have to mask. So leave it up to an individual decision."

 

Dr. Erwin Stuebner said the community is approaching the threshold where the Board of Health can take a step back, but he and the rest of the board agreed the time has not come yet.

 

"In this grid, they say, greater 85 percent vaccination, remove precautions regardless of case rates," Stuebner said. "I think we're very much, as you say, Jeff, close to that. Before we make a formal statement from the Board of Health, I might prefer to wait until our March meeting. I think we're almost there, but if we're going to make a statement from us in that regard, I would prefer to wait through this winter [school] vacation and maybe make a statement or policy at our March meeting."

 

Board of Health Chair Ruth Harrison agreed and noted that the board's current advisories are working well.

 

"It doesn't seem like there's any great need to do this now," Dr. James Parkinson said. "In many ways, I've observed people doing it on their own. Because we didn't make a mandate, it's not like we have to take a mandate. Our action was basically to say, 'Be smart. Do what's right.' In many ways, that's what we'd be saying, I think, in March: OK, use your judgment.

 

"We can revisit it in March and go from there."

 

The committee agreed to hold its March meeting on Monday, March 14, at 9 a.m. and, on a note of optimism, tentatively planned to hold that gathering in person at Town Hall.