Pittsfield Hospitalization Rates Not Spiking During Omicron Surge

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The omicron variant has presented a historically high spike in cases but hospitalization rates are not so far surging in response.

During a COVID-19 update at Tuesday's City Council meeting, Director of Public Health Andy Cambi reported that there are 25 people hospitalized at Berkshire Medical Center for the virus and that a large number of these patients are unvaccinated.

"While we have seen the rise in cases tremendously with omicron, the hospital census has remained in the lower end compared to what we saw before," he said, comparing the current rates to those at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

Cambi displayed a chart that compared normalized hospital distribution between the vaccinated and unvaccinated in Pittsfield. With the omicron variant, the unvaccinated rank much higher on the chart than those who are.  

Currently, 73 percent of the city's residents are fully vaccinated and 85 percent have had at least one dose (this may include the one-dose J&J vaccine, which counts as fully vaccinated).

"So what we can make of this is that receiving the vaccine has done a lot to help protect our community," Cambi said. "We can see that in the data that we have here from the hospital census."

Pittsfield's average case rate per 100,000 is 244.9, a metric that has sharply risen since Christmas. The positivity rate is 18.8 percent, close to the highest positivity rate of 19.2 that occurred in early April 2020.

There are currently 716 estimated actively contagious cases in the city and there were 114 new cases on Monday. This is an improvement from Friday when there were 163 new cases, the highest daily case rate in the history of the pandemic.

Hospitals across the state this week were preparing to differentiate reporting on novel coronavirus cases based on whether patients were admitted because of or related to COVID-19 or were admitted for unrelated reasons and tested positive. All hospital admissions are being tested for the virus. 

Truck Crashes Into Pittsfield's Samel's Deli

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
10:55AM / Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Elm Street will be partially closed as cleanup continues. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Wednesday morning was busy for Pittsfield first responders, as a pickup truck crashed into Samel's Deli & Catering and a fire broke out on First Street.

Around 9:45 a.m., the police reported that the street in front of Samel's Deli & Catering would be closed or down to one lane as a result of a two-car collision that sent the truck careening into the deli.

The department posted two photos on Facebook, one depicting the silver truck with New York license plates crashed through the glass of the front entrance and another of a white Honda CR-V with significant damage to the front end.

"A vehicle was coming out of one of the alleyways here and struck this truck, which continued into the building," Police Officer Craig Jones explained when iBerkshires arrived on the scene.

Jones reported that there was one injury but whether it was someone in the vehicles or in the deli. A crossing signal near Samel's front entrance was also taken out by the truck.

Around this time, crews worked to clear debris in front of the restaurant as the truck was towed away. That section of the road reopened around 11 a.m.

The police, firefighters and an ambulance responded to the accident and police intend to release a statement on the incident.

Around 6:15 a.m., the Fire Department reported that it had responded to a possible structure fire at 233-235 First St. Windows on all three floors of the multi-family building are now broken or boarded up and the cause is under investigation by the Fire Investigation Unit and investigators from the State Fire Marshal's Office.