Framingham Covid-19 rate back over 4 but still below MA average

The city’s rate of daily known new Covid-19 cases jumped from 1.5 per 100,000 population last week to 4.2 this week, according to data released today by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Those metrics measure average daily cases in the most recently available 14-day period.

The current statewide average for daily known new cases is 5.3 per 100K, affected in part by the cluster of cases in Provincetown earlier this month. The rate in P-town – which long had one of the lowest rates in Massachusetts – is now 456 per 100K (although that’s skewed by the low number of “official” full-time residents vs how many are there for part or all of the summer, since the rate is based on the year-round population).

Test positivity in Framingham rose to 1.3% – it was 0.54% last week. The state’s overall positivity was 1.46% (P-town was 11.1%).

Number of tests administered to Framingham residents rose again this week. But while tests increased 15%, number of cases in the city nearly tripled.

New CDC mask guidance suggests everyone mask in indoor public places, even if vaccinated, in counties where there are 50 or more known new cases per 100,000 people in the most recent 7 days. Yesterday, the city announced 35 new cases in that time period, or roughly 47 per 100,000. Both Framingham and Middlesex County as a whole remains below that CDC “substantial transmission” level; the county-wide rate is 43.6 per 100K. Suffolk County is above it, though, at 66.