SPRINGFIELD — Although the worst of COVID-19 may be behind us, Springfield’s Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris wants people to be cognizant of the disease’s current status at the local level.
The commissioner met with the City Council’s Health and Human Services Committee on Jan. 14 to chat about what the COVID-19 statistics look like in Hampden County now, compared to the beginning of the fall season.
The meeting happened in the midst of XEC becoming the leading COVID-19 variant. As of press time, Caulton-Harris said that around 55% of the United States COVID-19 cases were XEC, which is an omicron subvariant that carries many of the same symptoms as previous COVID-19 strains but has so far caused less hospitalizations than other variants.
At the time of the meeting, Caulton-Harris said the new variant has not impacted Springfield as much as the rest of the country, but that does not mean it will not eventually.
“It will come,” she said. “I don’t want to just say we’re out of the woods or we’re not impacted. We are, but not to the degree that the whole United States is.”
Massachusetts has recently seen a starker rise in COVID-19 cases in general compared to the beginning of November. According to the state dashboard, there were 2,480 confirmed and probable cases between Dec. 29, 2024, and Jan. 4, which was right in the middle of the holiday season. By comparison, the state experienced 945 confirmed and probable cases between Nov. 10 and 16, 2024.
The state’s dashboard shows that Springfield specifically saw 141 cases between Dec. 22, 2024, and Jan. 4, 78 between Dec. 29, 2024, and Jan. 4, and 1,330 cases throughout the overall season, which as of press time, ran from June 30, 2024, to Jan. 4. Caulton-Harris noted during the Health and Human Services committee meeting that these numbers were larger than surrounding communities like West Springfield, Westfield and Wilbraham, but said a lot of that has to do with Springfield having a much larger population base.
The more telling metric is the state dashboard’s case rate. According to the state website, Springfield’s case rate between Dec. 22, 2024, and Jan. 4 was 90.4 cases per 100,000 residents, which was smaller than Holyoke, Chicopee, Agawam and Wilbraham’s during that time period.
“Springfield is not outrageously impacted in terms of this number,” Caulton-Harris said, when speaking on the case rate metric during the meeting. “Based on population, it does not appear to be that high based on Hampden County’s numbers.”
Despite this, the committee and Caulton-Harris noted the importance of staying cautious since numbers can fluctuate throughout the winter and the case stats typically only account for what has been reported by doctors and hospitals.
“Any time there is a positive communicable disease it has to be reported to the state, so if your doctor’s office, you’re positive there, you’re positive in the hospital, then in fact, that will show up in the numbers,” Caulton-Harris said. “But it will not show up for home testing.”
Much like the beginning of the pandemic, the elderly population is still seeing the greatest impact from COVID-19, according to Caulton-Harris.
However, the number of COVID-19 deaths across the commonwealth has decreased slightly since vaccines were administered in the fall.
According to the state dashboard, there were 147 confirmed and probable deaths between Sept. 1 and Nov. 2, 2024, and 109 confirmed and probable deaths between Nov. 3, 2024, and Jan. 4.
“Any death is not something we want to see,” she said. “But it’s not as much as we saw in September in October.”
In total, there were 407 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths between June 30, 2024, and Jan. 4, according to the dashboard.
During the meeting, Caulton-Harris said the best combatant to COVID-19 is still vaccination, especially because the current iteration of the vaccine is expected to help mitigate the newest strain. However, Caulton-Harris said that vaccination rates have always been low in Springfield, even during the peak years of the pandemic.
Despite this, she noted that the city’s goal is to continue to push the importance of getting the flu and COVID-19 vaccine because that is still the recommendation from world health leaders.
She noted that even if you got vaccinated in the past for COVID-19, it is still important to do so on an annual basis.
“Everyone is still recommending vaccines for individuals 6 months and over,” Caulton-Harris said.
“But those of us who are senior citizens, we need to be more vigilant about getting our vaccinations for flu and COVID [-19].”
The committee members took Caulton-Harris’s recommendations and data collection to heart and emphasized the importance of staying diligent during the winter season.
“The thing that alarms me is that the general public thinks COVID-19 is over, and then that’s why they don’t go for vaccinations,” said City Councilor Brian Santaniello during the committee meeting. “And there’s a huge risk, especially for people that have comorbidities.”
Residents who need COVID-19 test kits can visit the Department of Health and Human Services at 311 State St. every Tuesday and Wednesday, Caulton-Harris said.
