COVID-19 Cases Climbing

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — COVID-19 has been making a resurgence around the state. 
 
There were more than 2,000 new cases in Massachusetts in the past seven days and University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester is mandating employees mask around patients after a jump in COVID-19 positive employees.
 
iBekshire stopped posting weekly updates on the virus back in March. That last post had the number of positives reported statewide that week as 2,612, a number that had continued to decline along with hospitalizations. 
 
The state interactive dashboard shows higher positive numbers in the eastern part of the state, particularly Middlesex County. Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and the islands have the lowest numbers. 
 
Confirmed positives had declined to 54 statewide for the first week in July. 
 
The number of positive testing patients hit a low of 98 in July and has now climbed to about 300. About a third of those were being treated primarily for the novel coronavirus and about two-thirds of the total were fully vaccinated.
 
Berkshire Health Systems is no longer posting the number of positive patients in its facilities. Integritus Healthcare (formerly Berkshire Healthcare) is reporting one patient case and four employee cases at a Holyoke facility. 
 
 
Nationally, the number of positives is also trending up with hospital admissions up almost 22 percent the second week of August (the most recent reporting). Total hospitalizations to date is 6,256,971.
 
Deaths, through Aug. 19, were up more than 21 percent and the national total is now 1,138,602. 
 
Of the 91 new cases reported in Berkshire County in the past two weeks, 42 were in Pittsfield. The next highest was seven each in North Adams and Lenox. 
 
The county's 14-day positivity rate is fairly low for the state at 6.49 percent; the state's seven-day rate is 10.83 percent. 

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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.

Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.

"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.

The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.

The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar. 

Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.

She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.

"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."

The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.

"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."

They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.

"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.

As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen. 

Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.

"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."

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