Local COVID-19 updates

[edschweppe]

As of 4PM today, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is reporting 25 newly reported confirmed COVID-19 deaths (for a total of 8,053), 177 newly reported confirmed cases (for a total of 105,138), and 9,648 new patients tested by molecular tests (for a total of 920,002), with a total of 1,171,180 molecular tests administered to date. The ratio of newly confirmed cases to individuals tested by molecular test is 1.8%. The state also reported zero newly reported probable deaths (for a total of 215), 118 newly reported probable cases (for a total of 5,759), and 1,267 patients tested by antibody tests (for a total of 78,417). Combining the confirmed and probable numbers gives 25 new deaths (for a total of 8,268) and 295 new cases (for a total of 110,897).

Overall not good news. Tests are up which is always nice, and deaths are down which is better. However, the statewide case numbers are up, which is never good. Worse, both the three-day average number of COVID-19 patients in hospital and the three-day average of COVID-19 deaths are up, with the hospitalization count up for the second day in a row. The only good news is that the number of hospitals using surge capacity is back down ... to four. (Also some bad news on the town front; see below.)

Front page news in today's Boston Globe: Contact tracing for coronavirus in Mass. significantly downscaled as leaders report chronic problems:

Massachusetts is significantly scaling back its first-in-the-nation partnership with Partners in Health to track down people infected by the coronavirus, as the rate of positive cases in the state has held steady at or below 2 percent since mid-June.

Hundreds of contact tracers hired since the program was launched in April were recently laid off, and leaders in several cities and towns that collaborate with the Boston-based global health organization have expressed frustrations about problems with the initiative. Some have dropped out.

Governor Charlie Baker said Wednesday that there just wasn’t enough work for the Partners in Health employees who were tracking down close contacts of those infected.

[ ... ]

The Massachusetts program drew national attention when it was launched in the spring. Experts say contact tracing is crucial to help prevent clusters of infections from becoming widespread outbreaks.

Tracers call individuals identified as COVID-19 positive by the state Health Department, and ask about their activities and their close contacts — those who were within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes in the days before the infected person tested positive. The tracers then contact those people and urge testing and quarantining until they know whether they’re infected, too.

Exactly how many tracers and related staff have been laid off is unclear. The Baker administration said in a statement that the program hired and trained nearly 1,900 people, but by mid-June the force was down to about 1,200.

The administration said that after other departures, the program, a collaborative between local communities and Partners in Health, further reduced its team by another 350 people. It said it currently employs more than 700 people, including community health center staff.

[ ... ]

Local health departments also conduct contact tracing, and the state effort was meant to help with that effort. But the state collaboration with Partners in Health was plagued by problems from its start in early April, according to several local health department leaders. They said widespread computer glitches, gaps in training, and communication struggles led to significant delays in contacting infected residents.

Public health experts say ideally it should take no longer than three days to connect with and test those who may have been in close contact with an infected person. But some local health leaders said it often took longer than that for Partners just to connect with the initial infected person, delaying efforts to identify and isolate others.

While some of the problems have been fixed, delays and communication issues in the Partners in Health-led collaborative continue today, local health leaders said Wednesday.

"I gave up on [the collaborative] because it's more of a pain than it's worth," said Wil van Dinter, Watertown’s public health nurse. "I handle all the calls myself. I don't trust them [PIH] or the information they provide."

Uh, Governor? If there's not enough work for the trackers, perhaps you should be using more of that 30k tests per day capacity you were talking about earlier to screen folks without symptoms?

Sheesh.


As of 5:30PM today, the town of Acton is reporting 178 cumulative cases of COVID-19 with 5 individuals in isolation, 152 recovered and 21 fatalities. That's five new cases in three days, after no new cases since June 22. Not good news.