Amid rising coronavirus case numbers, Gov. Charlie Baker has pointed to community spread and informal gatherings at home as the leading culprit. Now, legislators and health officials are following his lead in trying to explain the outbreak of the virus and death toll at Hillcrest Commons in Pittsfield.

 The number of COVID-19 deaths at the nursing and rehabilitation center climbed to 32 on Wednesday, with three quarters of residents having been infected with the virus in the last month.

 The facility had a track record of zero confirmed COVID-19 cases a little more than a month ago, but then staff members started testing positive a couple weeks after Halloween.

 In early November, Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer began warning of a large spike in COVID-19 cases related to house parties and dining inside restaurants. It wasn’t until those numbers grew that the presence of the virus took over at Hillcrest.

 The numbers shot up from two infected residents to 93 in a week, and now at least 166 of 224 residents have the virus. Over 75 staff have also tested positive.

 On Facebook, Rep. Patricia Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield said there’s a “direct line” between the Halloween parties in Pittsfield and a group of indoor diners at the end of October to the outbreak at Hillcrest Commons.

 Berkshire Healthcare Systems, which runs Hillcrest, has a similar theory but doesn’t know exactly what brought the virus in. “But I think we know that when we see community spread in any community, and there are nursing homes in those communities, and workers live in those communities, we then see that translate into the community that our residents live in,” said vice president and spokesperson Lisa Gaudet.

 Gaudet similarly told the Berkshire Eagle that the source could have been a visitor before visitation was suspended on November 18, or a staff member or new admission in early November. Hillcrest froze admissions on November 24. The state Department of Public Health sent a rapid response team to Hillcrest the day before.

 Four residents of Kimball Farms Nursing Care Center in Lenox,– which also is owned by Berkshire Healthcare Systems, have died.

As of Friday morning, there are 769 active cases in Pittsfield, which saw cases grow exponentially the week after Halloween in a climb that hasn’t stopped since.

 Tri-Town Health Department Executive Director Jim Wilusz told the Berkshire Eagle the cases were imminent. “We knew this was coming, it was only a matter of time after Halloween,” he said.

Dr. Alan Kulberg, the chair of the western Massachusetts city’s Board of Health, had a similar take. 

“We do know that there were quite a few staffers who had the virus,” he told WBUR, “and the prevailing thinking is that many of these staffers became ill outside the institution, as a result of their own social connections, and thereafter brought the illness into the facility.”

Actual negligence doesn’t seem to be part of the issue. Julia Durchanek, a Holyoke attorney who serves as a guardian for a number of residents at Massachusetts nursing homes, including one COVID positive resident living at Hillcrest, said she always has found that staff there are “very attentive” and “doing their best,” very different from Holyoke Soldiers Home, where one of her clients died earlier this year. 

SARAH BETANCOURT

 

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Gov. Charlie Baker amends the police reform bill to allow the use of facial recognition technology and to put law enforcement officials in charge of police training. He then sends it back to the Legislature, indicating that he’s willing to compromise but will go only so far.

No good news on the COVID front, as Massachusetts as a state moves into the high-risk COVID-19 category. There are now 151 communities designated red, cases and deaths are mounting, and Lawrence case levels spiral to their highest level yet.

The SJC upholds Baker’s sweeping emergency powers under the 1950 Civil Defense Act and lays out a standard for when they can be used again in the future.

Eleven MBTA workers were suspended for up to five days without pay for not wearing masks. Another 52 received written warnings. 

Finger pointing abounds in school reopening debate, with Baker coming in for a lot of criticism.

State housing funds are trickling out, raising concerns among advocates for tenants that a slow-moving bureaucracy may be making the eviction situation worse. 

New leaders are appointed at the Chelsea and Holyoke Soldiers’ Homes, but still no superintendent in Holyoke.

Opinion: The solar revolution in Massachusetts is stalled and needs to be put back into gear, say Ben Downing and Ben Underwood.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

 

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

Boston city councilors discuss police union contracts as part of an ongoing effort to rein in overtime costs and bring more transparency and accountability to the police department. (Bay State Banner)

A sinkhole in Boston’s Ronan Park is most likely a remnant of an ancient well. (Dorchester Reporter)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

An advisory group recommends FDA approval of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, making it all but certain that the agency will grant emergency authorization for its use within days — or even hours. (Washington Post)

New research says as many as 300,000 COVID-19 cases may have resulted from the Biogen conference in Boston in February. (Boston Globe)

The Herald News explores why COVID-19 cases might be so high in Fall River. SouthCoast Health hospitals see a surge of COVID and non COVID patients. (Standard-Times) 

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Congressional disarray and bickering are imperilling prospects for a new economic stimulus bill. (Washington Post)

Decriminalizing marijuana federally and imposing a national excise tax, which the Massachusetts congressional delegation supports, could cut $7 billion off the federal deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office. (MassLive)

More than half of the House Republican Caucus signs an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn election results in several swing states. (ProPublica)

ELECTIONS

Andrew Yang, the former tech entrepreneur who gained a wide following as an outside-the-box thinker in the Democratic presidential primary race, has signaled he will run for mayor of New York City next year. (New York Times) 

Though Joe Biden has yet to even assume office, Politico is already declaring that Kamala Harris’s 2024 prospects for president are looking up because no other BIden rivals from the 2020 primaries have landed cabinet picks that would elevate their profile. 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Sales are booming for Christmas trees in Central Massachusetts. (Telegram & Gazette)

Boston-based Gillette keeps scrambling to retain its dominance of the shaving razor market in the face of online upstarts crowding in on its sales. (Boston Globe) 

EDUCATION

Massachusetts schools have become increasingly segregated — and it’s not clear that there is a strong will to combat that. (Boston Globe)

Students are uncomfortable with a Thin Blue Line flag placed near a police officers’ memorial at Peabody High, as the School Committee weighs moving the memorial in response to a request. (The Salem News)

In the last week, 503 students and 420 staff at Massachusetts schools tested positive for COVID-19, with the most cases reported in New Bedford. (MassLive)

ARTS/CULTURE

The demolition of the Harriet Tubman House in Boston’s South End shakes the community. (WBUR)

TRANSPORTATION

Keolis, the state’s commuter rail operator, says it will cut train service in half on Monday for at least two weeks due to shortages of employees caused by COVID-19 illnesses. (State House News Service)

The National Transportation Safety Board releases a report about the October 2019 crash of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress at Bradley International Airport, and finds numerous problems with the plane and with the oversight of the Collings Foundation that owned it. (MassLive)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

A Boston Herald editorial says the fact that Massachusetts inmates will be in the high-priority group that gets the first COVID-19 vaccines means we should stop considering the idea of releasing prisoners early because of virus fears behind the wall. 

PASSINGS

Republican State Rep. Dick Hinch, who was sworn in only last week as the new speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, died Wednesday of COVID-19. (Boston Herald)