Updated: 7:09 PM EDT May 12, 2021 The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported an additional 626 confirmed COVID-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 654,734 since the start of the pandemic.State health officials also added 13 confirmed COVID-19-related deaths to the state s total, which is now 17,357. Wednesday s daily COVID-19 data report was delayed by about 2 hours. The DPH did not provide an explanation for the delay.So far, about 8.22 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to Massachusetts, of which about 6.91 million, or 84.1%, have been administered. So far, about 3.05 million people in the state are fully vaccinated.An estimated 16,685 cases are active across Massachusetts, according to the report. That estimate is the third-lowest reported by the DPH since they began sharing the statistic on Nov. 2, 2020. The only lower reported estimates were on Nov. 2, 2020 (16,561) and Nov. 3, 2020 (16,681).Click here to see a graphical lo
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Boston University Weekly COVID-19 Report: May 5 to 11
Boston University publishes its COVID-19 testing data on a public-facing dashboard. Gloria Waters, BU vice president and associate provost for research, and Judy Platt, director of BU Student Health Services, provide a weekly update on the overall health of the BU community.
Gloria Waters has spearheaded teams of BU scientists in their development and deployment of a campus-wide COVID-19 testing program and mathematical modeling of community behavior. Judy Platt, chair of BU’s Medical Advisory Group, oversees clinical management and isolation of students and employees who test positive for coronavirus, and helps manage BU’s contact tracing efforts. They are co-chairs of BU’s Vaccine Preparedness Group, which is overseeing the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines allocated to BU by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Massachusetts ranked 3rd safest state amid COVID pandemic with high vaccination rate, low number of positive tests
Today 8:55 AM
The Bay State may now be one of the safest places to live amid the coronavirus pandemic.
WalletHub released it’s rankings of the safest states during the COVID-19 public health crisis, and Massachusetts came in third.
“As the U.S. continues its struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic, staying safe is one of Americans’ top concerns. Safety is also essential for getting the economy back on track, as the lower COVID-19 transmission and deaths are in a state, the more that state is able to eliminate restrictions on businesses,” WalletHub wrote on its website. “We’ll only be able to get back to life as normal once most of the population is fully vaccinated against coronavirus, and it will still be a while before we can achieve that.”
Wicked Local
The town last week took the Morses Pond water treatment plant offline after elevated levels of chemicals were detected.
The Department of Public Works is doing laboratory testing, as required by state regulations, which will determine the levels of human-made chemical compounds in Wellesley’s drinking water. Recent results from initial tests performed in April 2021 by the Water and Sewer Division have confirmed elevated levels of PFAS6 compounds at the Morses Pond Wellfield, one of three treatment plants supplying drinking water to the town, according to the town s announcement. As a precaution, this week the Morses Pond plant was taken offline while further testing is done, and water for all Wellesley residents and businesses is currently being supplied by the town’s two other treatment plants, plus the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA).
The mayor of Pittsfield, Massachusetts gave a COVID-19 update at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
At the bimonthly virtual meeting, Mayor Linda Tyer said Pittsfield remains in the state’s “yellow” designation for COVID-19 transmission.
“Our case trend can be best described as stagnant over the most of the last couple of weeks, with a pronounced drop of case trends over the last five days, said Tyer. The case rate is now 16.9% for 100,000. That is a drop of 29% in 14 days. Most of the drop, approximately 25% of that, has happened in the last five days, while 4% happened in the first 12 days of this 14 day period.”