Fun with MA COVID-19 Reporting 03-Nov-2021 Edition

Before getting started with today's update, I just want to explain why I've left in the information going back to June of this year... it's because we need to be reminded that we could do better without shutting down all businesses.  We were at phase 3 of re-opening at that point and had been for quite some time.  We were doing really well and had brought the spread of COVID down to 1 case per 100,000 people per day and even saw a day where nobody died of the disease!  And all this with just general precautions like keeping our masks on and not throwing caution to the wind.  With more people getting vaccinated, it should be easier for us to get back to those levels of spread if we just tried a little harder to take into account not just the risk to ourselves but to our community.  When you look at the numbers below, look not just at the trajectory in recent weeks but how far away we are from where we had reached in late June, because reducing COVID spread is not some impossible task, living with a dozen deaths per day is not something we need to do.  COVID can be beat and we saw how to do it just half a year ago.  

Ok, now on with the day's report.

New hospitalizations have started reducing again, though still slower than they had been at the start of October.

June 13-19 2021   -  13.4
June 20-26 2021   -  12.7
Jun 27-Jul 3 2021  - 11.4
July 4-10 2021      -  14.3
July 11-17 2021    -  14.3
July 18-24 2021    -  17.9
July 25-31 2021    -  34.0
Aug 01-07 2021    -  42.7
Aug 08-14 2021    -  54.7
Aug 15-21 2021    -  69.0
Aug 22-28 2021    -  72.0
Aug 29-Sep 4 2021- 72.1
Sep 5-11 2021        - 79.0
Sep 12-18 2021      - 74.7
Sep 19-25 2021      - 65.6
Sep 26-Oct 2 2021 - 69.9
Oct 3-9 2021          - 63.3
Oct 10-16 2021      - 60.0
Oct 17-23 2021      - 59.7
Oct 24-30 2021      - 57.4

Hospital use also decreased last week, though slower than the slow prior week decrease, only decreasing by 1.7 patients per day (compared to the 2.5 from the prior week, shifting from a decrease of less than 0.5% to less than 0.4%).  ICU bed use went from decreasing by 1.1 beds used per day to completely stagnant, neither increasing nor decreasing.  And both these counts have increased thus far this week.  Number of people intubated reduced last week slightly with 1.1 fewer people being intubated per day.

So, hospital news isn't good but it's not exactly bad either.  

Decrease in spread appears to be slowing again, though only slightly.  Here's hoping this is only a 1-week slowdown though and we return to reducing by more than 1 case per day next week... but with Halloween gatherings and the upcoming other holiday gatherings, I'm less than optimistic.  Then again, this week so far has more cases than last week had recorded at the same time point (ie, last Wednesday).  

June 13-19 2021      -   72.4 cases per day (  1.05 cases per 100,000 people per day)
June 20-26 2021      -   65.9 cases per day (  0.96 cases per 100,000 people per day)
Jun 27-Jul 3 2021    -   79.1 cases per day (  1.15 cases per 100,000 people per day) 
July 4-10 2021        -  118.1 cases per day (  1.71 cases per 100,000 people per day) 
July 11-17 2021      -  263.9 cases per day (  3.83 cases per 100,000 people per day) 
July 18-24 2021      -  478.9 cases per day (  6.95 cases per 100,000 people per day) 
July 25-31 2021      -  721.1 cases per day (10.46 cases per 100,000 people per day) 
August 01-07 2021 -1000.0 cases per day (14.51 cases per 100,000 people per day) 
August 08-14 2021 -1156.6 cases per day (16.78 cases per 100,000 people per day) 
August 15-21 2021 -1315.1 cases per day (19.08 cases per 100,000 people per day)
August 22-28 2021 -1442.1 cases per day (20.92 cases per 100,000 people per day)
Aug 29-Sep 4 2021 -1558.3 cases per day (22.61 cases per 100,000 people per day)

Sep 5-11 2021         -1686.9 cases per day (24.47 cases per 100,000 people per day)
Sep 12-18 2021       -1657.9 cases per day (24.05 cases per 100,000 people per day)
Sep 19-25 2021       -1535.7 cases per day (22.28 cases per 100,000 people per day)

Sep 26-Oct 2 2021  -1338.3 cases per day (19.42 cases per 100,000 people per day)
Oct 3-9 2021           -1332.3 cases per day (19.33 cases per 100,000 people per day)
Oct 10-16 2021       -1289.4 cases per day (18.71 cases per 100,000 people per day)
Oct 17-23 2021       -1172.7 cases per day (17.01 cases per 100,000 people per day)
Oct 24-30 2021       -1122.0 cases per day (16.28 cases per 100,000 people per day)

Deaths per day has come down again and, unless we find at least 5 more deaths that occurred last week, we will have gotten back down to fewer than 10 deaths per day... though 9.3 is still significantly higher than we were back in late May through early August where we saw 1.5-5.4 deaths per day each week.

Stay safe. Stay informed.