PITTSFIELD â With coronavirus metrics improving and attention turned to large-scale vaccination efforts, the medical adviser of the cityâs Coronavirus Task Force has decided the time is right to step down â or âre-retire,â as he put it.
âI gave it a lot of thought and I weighed various priorities in my life and compared that with what the needs are in the Health Department,â said Dr. Alan Kulberg. âI felt the Health Department and the city was in good shape, and I felt it was a good time; that I could step back.â
Kulberg told The Eagle on Friday that he was resigning from that post immediately, but that he would remain in his role as chairman of the cityâs Board of Health.
PITTSFIELD â The effort to vaccinate first responders moved forward on Tuesday, when almost 300 police, fire and emergency medical services officials were signed up to receive their first dose at the Berkshire Community College field house, a city health leader said.
âWeâre really at the beginning, the beginning of the end, to get everybody vaccinated and back to normal,â said Pittsfield Fire Chief Tom Sammons.
Sammons spoke a few minutes before he was scheduled to get his first shot of the vaccine. Public Health Director Gina Armstrong said he was among about 270 first responders scheduled to be vaccinated at the site on Tuesday.
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Customers head into PortSmittâs Lakeway Restaurant on Pecks Road in Pittsfield in late October, shortly before its final day on Oct. 31. Contact tracers ultimately linked more than 60 coronavirus infections to PortSmittâs.
BEN GARVER â THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
Yuki Cohen, shown in her Methuselah Bar and Lounge, has been cited for a third time for COVID-19 health violations. She said she is being targeted by frivolous complaints.
EAGLE FILE PHOTO
Ann and Carlos Shacar wait to get into PortSmittâs Lakeway Restaurant on Pecks Road in Pittsfield in late October, days before its closing. Contact tracers have linked more than 60 coronavirus infections to Portsmittâs.
GREAT BARRINGTON â There was that birthday party in Pittsfield, the flag football games in Adams and a few âlarge gatheringsâ that set off a sizable volume of coronavirus infections in Pittsfield last month and trickled down to South County.
And there were other, more subtle exposures. One out-of-state visitor passed on what one Berkshire County public health official said appeared to be a different, mean strain of the virus that made âone group of women extremely sick.â
Leslie Drager, public health nurse for 20 Berkshire towns, said most symptoms she has seen have been mild â cold and allergylike â until that group surfaced on her radar.
PITTSFIELD â Methuselah Bar and Lounge has been fined $1,000 by the city for allegedly running afoul of two coronavirus safety standards, while the owner continues to protest that she is being targeted and said she will challenge the determination.
The city fined City Council member Yuki Cohen for not wearing a mask at Methuselah and âfor customers sitting at the bar area without proper distancing,â said Mayor Linda Tyer. Cohen said she had closed her establishment to the public at the time, after 9 p.m. Dec. 11, and she was having a drink with her colleague and friend, likening the situation to being at her private residence.