COVID-19 Outbreak at Springfield Hospital…Staff and Patients Infected

Bay State Medical Center in Springfield reported today that 16 workers and 4 patients have tested positive for COVID-19 according to a post at masslive.com. The outbreak is believed to be contained to one unit that is currently in lockdown at the hospital. Because of HIPPA privacy policies the specific unit was not named.

Quoted in the masslive.com report was the president and CEO of Bay State Health Dr. Mark Keroack "We are conducting contact tracing and testing for employees from the unit in question, and we also are reaching out to all patients who received care on the unit between November 6 - 16 to provide testing. We continue to coordinate our work with the MA Department of Public Health and local Boards of Health.”

On July 27 the largest outbreak at the hospital occurred when 23 employees and 13 patients were infected with coronavirus. Bay State Health facilities are currently caring for 87 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19…10 are in the critical care unit and 78 are receiving treatment at Bay State Medical Center according to the report.

The cases in Springfield have almost doubled in just one week. There were 646 reported cases reported between November 9 – 15^th. There were 379 cases the previous week. The increased spread is not isolated to Springfield or western Mass. Massachusetts was one of the hardest hit states when the virus began to spread in the US. To date there have been 186,744 confirmed cases of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic causing 10,360 deaths according to the report on masslive.com.