Framingham’s rate of known new Covid-19 cases soared to 43.5 per 100,000 population, according to data released today by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. That’s the highest it’s been since February 10, and up 44% from the prior week.
Test positivity jumped to 7.26%, also considerably higher than last week’s 5.8%.
Number of tests administered to Framingham residents rose as well, increasing 11.8%, but that increase was much less than the 44% jump in cases.
The data is for the two-week period ending May 7.
“In Massachusetts, we’re currently reporting ~2x as many daily COVID cases as we were at the peak of the delta surge,” tweeted Dr. Jaimuna Majumder, on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. “We were rightly concerned during delta, but now, our policymakers have their heads in the sand. Pretending like the pandemic is over = prolonging the pandemic.”
“It’s not just cases, but also deaths,” responded Alyssa Bilinski, a professor at Brown University’s School of Public Health, noting that several experts proposed trying to “keep peak COVID deaths in a surge below the peak of a bad flu+RSV season (<9 per million/week [in the U.S.]). We have already crossed this threshold in MA, & deaths are still rising.”
“We have moved up to 3rd in the continental US in COVID case rate and 6th in hospitalizations. But figures like this (and the clear lack of concern among political leaders) show that we are working hard to secure that number 1 slot!” tweeted Jon Levy, professor at Boston University School of Public Health.
Even after the CDC changed its measures of Covid risk so that previous levels which were deemed high are now acceptable, Middlesex County is now at a high Covid level where indoor mask use is recommended in public.
For those concerned about risks of long Covid, the UK Office for National Statistics released some experimental analysis finding that about 9% of people who were triple vaxxed and then infected with Omicron BA.2 still had illness symptoms four to eight weeks later. That number didn’t distinguish by age group or severity of symptoms.
Risk was about 8% among triple-vaxxed who got ill with Omicron BA.1
MWRA Wastewater Samples
Covid-19 traces in MWRA wastewater – often a leading indicator of case trends – continue to rise. That data are considered a good predictor in part because wastewater samples don’t depend on how many tests can be given to individuals or who seeks out testing.
Graph is below. Framingham is part of MWRA’s South region.
MWRA South Region Covid Traces
More graphs of Framingham data at my Framingham Covid-19 data app and statewide data, including by community, at my Massachusetts Covid-19 data app.
See latest Covid-19 data coverage at http://www.district2framingham.com/tags/covid19/.
Sign up for the District2Framingham.com email list!!