PITTSFIELD â More than 1,000 health care workers have been vaccinated across the county, as Berkshire Health Systems speeds through its first allocated doses.
The hospital system plans to finish its first shipment by the end of day Wednesday, just one week after the vaccine arrived, according to spokesperson Michael Leary.
Hospital officials do not know when its second shipment will arrive and whether BHS might be impacted by Gov. Charlie Bakerâs announcement that the state will receive 20 percent fewer doses from the federal government than expected. Leary said it also is unclear whether the second shipment will contain the Pfizer vaccine or the newly approved Moderna vaccine.
‘There are so many supply chain issues’: Some Massachusetts hospitals are borrowing ultra-cold freezers; others say they don’t need them
Updated Dec 22, 2020;
Posted Dec 22, 2020
Boston Medical Center made history Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, when it became the first hospital in Massachusetts to receive a shipment of nearly 2,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. (Adam Knee/Boston Medical Center)
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With now two coronavirus vaccines en route to Massachusetts, a number of state hospitals still don’t have ultra-cold freezers needed to store the Pfizer/BioNTech immunizations, prompting some to borrow storage units from neighboring facilities.
In Western Massachusetts, Berkshire Medical Center has already borrowed two of the ultra-cold freezers while staff wait for an order of storage supplies to arrive.
BY THE NUMBERS: Berkshire Countyâs death toll climbed by three over the weekend, with one death Saturday and two announced Sunday; it stands now at 119. The confirmed COVID-19 case count rose Saturday by 25 and Sunday by 41 to a current total of 2,445, the state Department of Public Health said.
The DPH said 60 new deaths were reported in Massachusetts, pushing the statewide total to 11,465. Deaths including those listed as probably caused by COVID-19 is 11,717. Confirmed cases rose 4,162 to 311,090. According to data provided by Johns Hopkins University, 206,843 people in Massachusetts with COVID-19 have recovered. CITY OF PITTSFIELD
NUMBER OF ACTIVE CASES: 82,617 statewide; 860 active cases in Pittsfield; 396 households in quarantine in Pittsfield.
PITTSFIELD â More than 1,000 health care workers have been vaccinated across the county, as Berkshire Health Systems speeds through its first allocated doses.
The hospital system plans to finish its first shipment by the end of day Wednesday, just one week after the vaccine arrived, according to spokesperson Michael Leary.
Hospital officials do not know when its second shipment will arrive and whether BHS might be impacted by Gov. Charlie Bakerâs announcement that the state will receive 20 percent fewer doses from the federal government than expected. Leary said it also is unclear whether the second shipment will contain the Pfizer vaccine or the newly approved Moderna vaccine.
PITTSFIELD â It has been a year of unimaginable hardship, of struggle and of sacrifice that many will just as well prefer to forget.
The year 2020 is coming to a close, after earning a spot in the history books and assuming its place as the punchline to endless sardonic jokes.
Though the trials of dealing with a raging pandemic continue, so too does the tradition of neighbors helping out neighbors in need.
When Pittsfield saw its first major snowstorm last week, young community members helped residents dig out as part of 18 Degreesâ Pittsfield Community Connection âpay what you canâ snow shoveling initiative.