Local COVID-19 updates
May. 10th, 2020 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edschweppeAs of 4PM this afternoon, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is reporting 139 more deaths from COVID-19 (for a total of 4,979 to date), 1,050 new cases (for a total of 77,793) and 11,852 more tests performed (for a total of 388,389).
These numbers aren't getting terribly worse, but they're also not getting particularly better, which bodes poorly for the odds of any sort of safe reopening of the local economy. We'll almost certainly pass the five-thousand-death mark tomorrow, which is no cause whatsoever for celebration. In fact, the state now has the dubious distinction of having the third highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the country, behind only New York and New Jersey:
The town of Acton has yet to post an update today; yesterday's report listed 121 confirmed cases in town; 52 of those being "cases in isolation that are actively being monitored". (Annoyingly, the town appears to have given up creating unique URLs for each day, and is instead recycling the https://www.actonma.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1142 URL.)
These numbers aren't getting terribly worse, but they're also not getting particularly better, which bodes poorly for the odds of any sort of safe reopening of the local economy. We'll almost certainly pass the five-thousand-death mark tomorrow, which is no cause whatsoever for celebration. In fact, the state now has the dubious distinction of having the third highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the country, behind only New York and New Jersey:
Dr. Ashish Jha, professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, estimated that the coronavirus has nearly doubled the rate of deaths in Massachusetts over the past month. Monthly fatalities, from all causes, are usually around 5,000 here, he said.
"That’s a stunning, stunning notion: that one disease that we had not heard about could cause almost as much death as every other disease combined," Jha said.
[ ... ]
A panel appointed by Governor Charlie Baker is set to deliver recommendations by that date for how to restart the economy.
But Massachusetts is among the hardest-hit areas in the nation. No state has seen more overall deaths from coronavirus besides New York, which reported 21,478 by Sunday, and New Jersey which reported 9,255. Massachusetts in recent days surpassed Michigan’s total, which on Sunday stood at 4,551.
The town of Acton has yet to post an update today; yesterday's report listed 121 confirmed cases in town; 52 of those being "cases in isolation that are actively being monitored". (Annoyingly, the town appears to have given up creating unique URLs for each day, and is instead recycling the https://www.actonma.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1142 URL.)