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After a year of global pandemic, we should not be surprised that 2021 is the year when a horde of 17-year cicadas will descend on us once again.
According to the website EarthSky, billions of Brood X cicadas will emerge in a dozen states, “from New York west to Illinois and south into northern Georgia, including hot spots in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.”
Not to worry. The cicadas will make a lot of noise with their mating calls, but they don’t sting and they’re not harmful. Locusts they are not. And they will go away, and the nitrogen from their bodies will feed the trees they once nibbled on.
Updated 3 hours ago
NBC Universal, Inc.
A day after reporting no COVID deaths in the daily report for only the third time since deaths were first reported in the commonwealth, Massachusetts public health officials confirmed 13 new coronavirus deaths on Wednesday.
Wednesday s report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health brings the death toll to 17,357. Another 355 deaths are considered probably linked to COVID. Download our mobile app for iOS or Android to get alerts for local breaking news and weather.
The latest report on the daily COVID metrics noted 626 more cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the state at 654,734, DPH data shows. This marks the sixth day in a row that the newly confirmed COVID cases have been under 1,000.