© 2024 New England Public Media

FCC public inspection files:
WGBYWFCRWNNZWNNUWNNZ-FMWNNI

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@nepm.org or call 413-781-2801.
PBS, NPR and local perspective for western Mass.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Pittsfield Reopens Indoor Dining, With Some Restrictions

Downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Nancy Eve Cohen
/
NEPM
Downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

The Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Board of Health has rescinded an earlier order to close indoor dining in the city.

The board is allowing restaurants to resume table service with new requirements, such as getting contact information from patrons in case infection tracing is needed, and limiting seating to six people per table.

Alan Kulberg, a physician and the chair of the Board of Health, said the original order was issued after "a couple of large clusters of cases" were traced to people who work in restaurants. He said those rates have improved, but the overall infection rate in the city has gone up.

Kulberg said the board is offering suggestions to restaurants to make sure reopening is successful.

"Delegating an employee of the restaurant as a COVID monitor whose job it would be to enforce the health and safety rules, to make sure that people who are sitting at a table only have their masks off when they're eating or drinking," Kulber said. "But before the meal is served, and after the meal has been cleared away, the masks have to go back on."

Kulberg said the decision to reopen indoor dining is data-driven, but a request from restaurant owners asking to reopen had some bearing on the board's decision. 

Nancy Eve Cohen is a senior reporter focusing on Berkshire County. Earlier in her career she was NPR’s Midwest editor in Washington, D.C., managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub and recorded sound for TV networks on global assignments, including the war in Sarajevo and an interview with Fidel Castro.
Related Content