Cheshire Medical Center leaders urge people not to abandon masks

By Rick Green
THE KEENE SENTINEL
People should continue wearing face coverings in indoor public places even though the COVID-19 pandemic is showing signs of easing and the city of Keene has lifted its masking mandate, Cheshire Medical Center leaders said Tuesday.

The positivity rate for COVID tests conducted by the Keene hospital for the week ending last Thursday was 14.6 percent, down from 20.4 percent the week before. But this rate still indicates substantial community transmission of the virus, a level for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends indoor masking.

Cheshire Medical’s test positivity rate was 23.7 percent the week ending Feb. 3, 25.5 percent the week before that and 32.6 percent in the week ending Jan. 20.

Anything over 10 percent on a weekly basis indicates substantial community transmission of the virus, according to the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last week, Keene officials struck down the city’s indoor mask requirement, with Mayor George Hansel casting the tie-breaking vote when councilors deadlocked, 7-7.

Hansel said mask-wearing is hard to legislate. Ward 3 Councilor Andrew Madison said the mask ordinance was meant as a temporary measure this winter until the pandemic eased up. Others noted that disease transmission and hospitalization statistics are in decline.

But Cheshire Medical Center President and CEO Dr. Don Caruso, who urged Keene officials to pass a mandate in November amid spiking cases and strained hospital capacity, said it’s “very premature” to abandon masks in indoor public places.

“You know, I think it’s nice to see the percent of positivity drop down,” he said. “I think that’s a real positive thing from the perspective of public health.

“But stopping the things that protect us now will only lead to some level of exacerbation of the disease.”

Caruso said there were six patients at the medical center on Tuesday with COVID-19, one of whom was in intensive care. Early last month, the average number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 was about 29, many on ventilators.

Out of 500 tests performed by the medical center for the week ending last Thursday, 73 were positive for the virus. The week before that, there were 103 positive tests out of 504.

Dr. Aalok Khole, an infectious-disease specialist at the hospital, said concerns continue that a new virus variant might emerge that would evade protections offered by vaccination, boosters and previous infection.

But the hope is that COVID-19 will eventually become a seasonal respiratory virus, like the flu, he said.

“That would mean it is present in the community, but you just keep an eye out only for local outbreaks and clusters,” Khole said.

Cheshire Medical announced last week that it had resumed elective medical procedures that had been halted in early December to create more capacity at the Keene hospital for those suffering from the virus.

Procedures that have resumed now include those that require an overnight stay, such as a total knee replacement, Caruso said.

A medical team at the hospital is reviewing cases in which medical procedures were delayed, reaching out to patients to reschedule and urging people to be patient while the backlog is cleared, Khole said.

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