Town-by-town coronavirus rates ease up; Massachusetts recovery rate tops 87%
Town-by-town coronavirus infection rates are inching down around Massachusetts, but one health expert is warning continued protests could wipe out that promising trend.
“We are seeing a lot of people getting tested who were in large protests,” said Tracy Mangini Sylven, director of community health and wellness at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. She was working late into the evening Wednesday outside the Brookside Community Health Center in Jamaica Plain testing 500-plus people.
“It’s of great concern,” she said of the COVID-19 infection rate that could “pop up again.”
She said Boston Mayor Martin Walsh was right to urge anyone who marched in a protest to be tested. She said many being tested are asymptomatic, but it’s still early. Boston’s infection rate is 18.26% — it was a percentage point higher last week.
The latest health figures released late Wednesday show 101,654 people have come down with the coronavirus with 88,725 out of monitoring or quarantine — meaning the state is seeing an 87% recovery rate.
The state reports a total of 7,568 people have died and another 5,361 remain under monitoring or are quarantined. But the recovery rate is beginning to show up in the city-by-city and town-by-town tallies.
In Brockton, the infection rate is down a percentage point in just one week to less than 26%. That, said Mayor Robert Sullivan, is a good sign.
“The latest numbers are encouraging,” he said. “We’ve lost far too many Brocktonians — 249 in all — but we are hopeful that we are moving in the right direction.”
He said city restaurants are opening up with outdoor seating, and masks and gloves are being handed out to those in need. Also, last week’s unrest during a protest has cooled.
In Chelsea, one of the state’s hot spots, the infection rate has dropped by a point to 37%. The same trend is holding true in Everett — where the rate has fallen to 27%.
Lawrence is also seeing a ray of hope, with the infection rate now slipping slightly to 25.15%.
Mangini Sylven said her Brigham team members — who have been in the eye of the COVID-19 storm in Boston from the start — will move to Hyde Park on Friday where they will be helping people with testing and food.
“There’s still a lot of food insecurity,” she added. “But the infection numbers have gone down, a bit.”
The state has also dropped below 1,000 people in the hospital.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3d6BVBa
Post a Comment