Framingham’s rate of known new Covid-19 cases declined again this week, according to data released today by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. But while the trend remains encouraging, actual levels are still high – why some experts say it will likely be end of February before community transmission levels are at the safer levels they were in mid-Autumn.
There were an average of 124.1 new cases per day among city residents in the most recent 14-day period. While lower than last week, you can see in the above graph that cases are still quite high compared with most of the pandemic. In addition, this data don’t include the many cases that are being uncovered by at-home tests, which are not reported to the state.
The city’s known case rate was higher than the state-wide 110.5 average.
Framingham’s PCR test positivity was high, at almost 12%, although down from January levels. WHO says positivity should be at 5% or below in order to find most active cases. State-wide positivity was 10%.
Number of PCR tests administered to city residents declined 14% compared with the same period a week ago.
Vaccinations
About 38% of city residents have received “booster” shots, considered critical for fending off the Omicron variant. 76.8% are at least fully vaccinated while 89.8% have received at least one dose.
More Good News in MWRA Wastewater Samples
Covid-19 traces in MWRA wastewater – often a leading indicator of case trends – continued to drop. That data are considered a good predictor of future cases in part because wastewater samples don’t depend on how many tests are administered to individuals or what mix of people get tested.
However, wastewater surveillance does not appear to show levels of current infections, which is the metric needed to judge overall risk due to community prevalence.
Graph is below. Framingham is part of MWRA’s South region. (You can click the legend to turn lines off and on as well as click and drag to zoom in on a portion of the graph.)
Vaccination Rates by Community
Covid-19 Known New Infections Prior 14 Days by Community
See latest Covid-19 data coverage at http://www.district2framingham.com/tags/covid19/.
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