Local COVID-19 updates
May. 13th, 2020 08:32 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 174 more deaths from COVID-19 (for a total of 5,315 to date), 1,165 new cases (for a total of 80,497) and 8,536 more tests reported (for a total of 410,032).
Neither the death nor the case counts went in the right direction today, even assuming yesterday's numbers were skewed by reporting issues. And a front-page story in today's Boston Globe reports that many scientists think it's too soon to consider reopening the state economy:
Also coming out today was the state's weekly town-by-town report of cases and case rates; according to that report, Acton had 120 cases, with a rate of 505.64 cases/100k residents; up from 95 cases and 400.30 cases/100k residents last week. The 80,497 cases reported statewide correspond to a rate of 1155.44 cases/100k residents.
The town of Acton has yet to post an update today; yesterday's report listed 136 confirmed cases in town. 68 cases were reported as being "cases in isolation that are actively being monitored".
Neither the death nor the case counts went in the right direction today, even assuming yesterday's numbers were skewed by reporting issues. And a front-page story in today's Boston Globe reports that many scientists think it's too soon to consider reopening the state economy:
"It still feels too early," said Erin Bromage, a biology professor who studies infectious diseases at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. "The fact that we’re still seeing 1,000 to 1,500 new cases every day and we’re in lockdown means quite a lot of community transmission is still happening, and the biology says you increase contacts, you increase spread, and you’re off again."
By next week, the state may meet one metric for reopening proposed by the White House: declining virus cases for 14 days, the time it can take for symptoms to show up. The state’s cases have largely decreased since May 1.
The scientists praised Baker’s establishment of a statewide contact-tracing program, aimed at isolating those who interacted with anyone infected. But they said the state still needs to be testing more people every day.
Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said the state needs to be testing possibly several times more people than currently to adequately detect and stop new outbreaks.
"If you go too fast, you get more outbreaks, you get increases in cases, increases in deaths, and you set the economy back," Jha said. "It isn’t about when a governor says things are reopened, it’s really about how much confidence people feel."
Also coming out today was the state's weekly town-by-town report of cases and case rates; according to that report, Acton had 120 cases, with a rate of 505.64 cases/100k residents; up from 95 cases and 400.30 cases/100k residents last week. The 80,497 cases reported statewide correspond to a rate of 1155.44 cases/100k residents.
The town of Acton has yet to post an update today; yesterday's report listed 136 confirmed cases in town. 68 cases were reported as being "cases in isolation that are actively being monitored".