COVID-19 DEATHS in nursing homes and rest homes crossed the 2,000 threshold on Thursday, meaning roughly 5 percent of the residents at the 476 facilities have died of the virus.
The state reported an increase of 119 deaths at long-term care facilities on Thursday, bringing the total to 2,101. The total represents 59 percent of all 3,562 COVID-19 deaths in the state.
The grim news comes as the state passed another day on the COVID-19 plateau, holding at a high level of new cases, hospitalizations, and intensive care unit occupancy. Gov. Charlie Baker has said the state won’t start reopening until it comes off the plateau where it has been resting for more than two weeks.
The number of new cases rose by 1,940. Hospitalizations fell by 53 to 3,803. Intensive care unit occupancy fell to 1,001 from 1,011. The number of new cases as a percentage of new tests rose one point to 19 percent.
Average number of contacts only 2
Gov. Charlie Baker said on Thursday that the contact and tracing effort being run by Partners in Health is finding that the average number of contacts for each infected person is just two.
“That’s a very good sign because it means the work all of you and we have done here in Massachusetts to stay home, to separate, to social distance, and to take seriously this idea that all of us have a role in stopping the spread has made a difference,” Baker said.
The number seems very low, well below an initial estimate of 10 that was subsequently lowered to six. It means the average person who contracts COVID-19 has come in contact with only two people in the previous few days. The contacts would include people living with the infected person.
A spokesman for Partners in Health did not return phone calls.
Baker said the contact and tracing effort is now nearly full staffed with 1,000 workers and has contacted and/or traced 5,000 people so far.
Lawmakers: Prioritize communities of color
A group of federal lawmakers sent a letter to the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling for improvements in COVID-19 demographic data and the prioritization of aid distribution to communities of color hard hit by the virus.
“The CDC’s data show that black patients are being disproportionately affected by the pandemic, accounting for about 30 percent of cases, despite being only around 13 percent of the population,” said the letter signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, US Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and several other lawmakers.
The lawmakers also urged the federal government to steer aid to the communities hit the hardest.
A bill passed in Congress last week requires US Health and Human Services to issue monthly reports on the data it collects related to race, ethnicity, sex, age, and geographic location of those who have been tested, hospitalized, or died from COVID-19.
