New England News

The 4th Annual Berkshire Pride LGBTQ+ Festival has been postponed due to the pandemic.

The COVID-19 crisis is affecting services across Berkshire County. For Michelle Lopez, executive director of the Berkshire Immigrant Center, the pandemic and the resulting shutdown are making it even harder to provide aid to one of the county’s most vulnerable populations. Lopez spoke with WAMC about supporting the immigrant community during the pandemic.

Pittsfield, Massachusetts has closed its basketball and tennis courts and its skate park in hopes of stemming the spread of coronavirus.

With Massachusetts schools closed into May due to the COVID-19 outbreak, educators are working to find new ways to continue teaching students. The Southern Berkshire Regional School District anticipates rolling out its new remote learning plan on Friday. WAMC spoke with Superintendent of Schools Beth Regulbuto about how her district intends to serve more than 600 students while its three campuses remain shuttered.

WAMC News has obtained an internal memo from Berkshire Health Systems that indicates the company will no longer require staffers to be furloughed after exposure to patients with COVID-19.

     An independent investigation has been announced into the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home where 13 residents died during a coronavirus outbreak at the long-term care facility for veterans.

Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal held a telephone town hall Tuesday to answer constituents’ questions about COVID-19.

      Some hard-won laws intended to protect the environment are being temporarily rolled back in the effort to protect people from the coronavirus. 

Becket, Massachusetts dance center Jacob’s Pillow has canceled its annual summer festival for the first time in its 88-year history due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s just the latest arts world casualty of the disease in an area that relies on summer cultural tourism. WAMC spoke with Director Pamela Tatge about the cancellation and its impacts on the center’s staff and budget.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger is providing daily updates on how the city, nonprofits and agencies in Vermont’s largest city are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. His latest updates have focused on aid to low-income residents and small business.

Becket, Massachusetts dance center Jacob’s Pillow has canceled its summer festival for the first time in its 88-year history.

  Top state and local officials were apparently kept in the dark as the coronavirus spread with deadly consequences through the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in western Massachusetts.

A Berkshire County state representative says he doesn’t expect schools to reopen this school year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is up to 20 at a nursing home in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott is mandating that people who arrive in the state quarantine themselves for 14 days to help reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.

     Eleven residents of the state-owned Holyoke Soldiers’ Home have died amid an outbreak of Covid-19 at the long-term care facility for veterans in western Massachusetts.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott is ordering travelers entering Vermont to self-quarantine.

Nurses at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts are demanding that all frontline staff at the hospital be outfitted with N95 facemasks.

   The city of Springfield, Massachusetts has put up large tents that will be used if the coronavirus spreads to the city’s homeless population.

A resident of the Williamstown Commons nursing and rehabilitation facility in Williamstown, Massachusetts has died after testing positive for COVID-19. WAMC spoke with her daughter.

Trying to further slow the spread of the coronavirus, Vermont Governor Phil Scott has closed all schools through the end of the school year.

Pittsfield, Massachusetts is changing its meal schedule for city students with public schools closed until at least May 4th.

As positive cases of COVID-19 mount at a Williamstown, Massachusetts nursing home, family members of the residents are reacting.

The legislative branch of the largest city in western Massachusetts is prepared to meet remotely during the coronavirus pandemic and comply with open meeting requirements.

Even if they can’t gather for services, spiritual leaders across Berkshire County are tending to their congregants in the anxious era of the COVID-19 outbreak.