( Wall-o-text )The good news (such as it is) is that there were fewer deaths this reporting period. Also, tests are up fractionally (although still far below the testing rate of April 2020). However, cases are also up, and the percent-positive ratio is now up to 11.39%, the highest reported since
January 12 (when we were averaging four times as many tests per day). Hospitalization rates are also up, and the wastewater levels from both the north and south sides of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority sewershed are both up compared to last week, not to mention way up compared to their June levels and way, way up from their all-time lows in previous Junes.
One other point in the wastewater numbers: back in April, the MWRA went from daily sample collecting to a three-day-per-week cycle. As of last Thursday (August 24), they've gone back to daily collections. I haven't seen any official announcement as to why.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have launched a new site,
CDC Respiratory Virus Updates, in which "CDC is posting updates on the respiratory illness season here every week", apparently on Wednesdays. The first such update (
last Wednesday) reported the initial risk assessment for the new BA.2.86 COVID variant; the second (
yesterday) updated that risk assessment:
( Read more... )The new variant hasn't officially been spotted in Massachusetts, and it's still very early days figuring out whether it'll be better or worse than any of the other variants floating around. On the other hand, the local trends are mostly going in the wrong directions anyway, even without this new variant. There's no need to panic - yet - but I can't say there's any basis for lowering one's guard.