Coronavirus

Massachusetts will distribute 3.5 million at-home COVID tests to cities and towns, which will then be able to make the tests available to residents, and another 1.5 million to food banks.

Massachusetts K-12 students and staff should be tested for COVID-19 before classes resume in September, while government, education and business leaders should outline clear plans for when mask mandates would be triggered if another surge builds, a group of public health experts, labor leaders and community organizers said Monday.

The office said that seven inmates have tested positive and are in isolation and two staff members are positive and quarantining out of work.

Berkshire County is seeing a small rise in cases. Most are mild and don't reach the hospital.

Citing reduced demand, Berkshire Health Systems says it will no longer offer PCR testing for COVID-19 on the weekends in North Adams and Pittsfield, starting Aug. 15.

The Saturday event at the Marian Fathers on Eden Hill in Stockbridge, organized by the Tri-Town Health Boards, will be hosted by a team of psychiatrists from the Austen Riggs Center, with informal discussion followed by a q-and-a for the public.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says children as young 6 months can be vaccinated. But in Berkshire County, doses can be hard to track down.

Daily COVID-19 caseloads are down 13 percent in the past two weeks; at least one out of five Berkshire residents have been infected since the start of the pandemic.