Fun with COVID-19 reporting in MA (and elsewhere)

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Also, all of this should be taken with a grain of salt.  For one thing, it relies of humans performing tracking (and the memory of others) when those at the top don't appear to be concerned.  For another, people who home-test and do not then go get tested by an organization are not being reported and therefore are not traced. Before we get into the non-residence-based settings, another quick update on Long Term Care Facilities, which I've commented on the last two weeks.  This setting has increased from 1,064 cases in the report on Dec 23, 2021, to 1,324 the week of Dec 30, 2021, to 2,464 in yesterday's report.  This week, we also saw Senior Living, which had been declining little by little, increase from 97 to 160. Notable this week: ...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Also, all of this should be taken with a grain of salt.  For one thing, it relies of humans performing tracking (and the memory of others) when those at the top don't appear to be concerned.  For another, people who home-test and do not then go get tested by an organization are not being reported and therefore are not traced. Before we get into the non-residence-based settings, a quick update on Long Term Care Facilities, which I commented on last week as increasing by 400 cases over the prior 2 week.  That setting has gone up by another 260 cases in the last week, now reaching 1,324. Notable this week:  Child Care and K-12 Schools continue to decline in cases, I suspect due to vacations... on the other hand, Organized Athletics & Camp...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Before we get into the non-residence-based settings, I'd like to take a moment and reflect on the fact that Long Term Care Facilities have been seeing a rapid increase.  Senior Living is a different setting (Senior Living is "Assisted living facilities, retirement communities, senior housing" whereas Long Term Care Facilities is "Nursing homes, skilled nursing"), and Senior Living has been above 100 cases each week but has been decreasing... though not nearly quickly to outpace the increases to Long Term  Care Facilities that have gone up roughly 400 cases in the last 2 weeks, or roughly 2/3.  Long Term Care Facilities is now at 1,064. Notable this week:  Child Care has finally potentially started going down, but only slightly and it s...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  Child Care continues to rocket ahead, this time gaining 29% more cases over what they had seen last week.  Child Care is now three times the next highest spreading non-residential-based setting, K-12 Schools... K-12 Schools which itself continues to be four times the next highest spreading non-residential-based setting thereafter, Social Gatherings.   Child Care Tier Child Care - 397 clusters causing 975 cases  K-12 Schools Tier K-12 Schools - 111 clusters causing 307 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 30 clusters causing 75 cases  Hospitals - 18 clusters causing 65 cases MediumTier Recreational/Cultural - 9 cluster causing 46 cases Organized Athletics & Camps - 27 clusters causing 43...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  Child Care continues to rocket ahead, increasing speed even, gaining 34% more cases than they had seen last week (last week they gained 23%).  Child Care is now nearly twice the next highest spreading non-residential-based setting, K-12 Schools... K-12 Schools which itself is four times the next highest spreading non-residential-based setting thereafter, Hospitals.  Hospitals, by the way, increased by a third and jumped over Social Gatherings (though just barely).... Hospitals which are filling up quickly and thus likely to experience further spread due to that increase in cases being in the confined space.  Recreational/Cultural increased by 42%.  Colleges & Universities reduced their spread by 36%, but that r...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  Childcare continues to rocket ahead, gaining 23% more cases than they had seen last week, which, remember, was already more than the sum of all the non-child tier non-residential based settings combined.  K-12 Schools, despite the holiday being part of the period, managed to maintain their spread.  Hospitals increased by 10% and Recreational/Cultural increased by 50%.  Industrial settings managed to decrease its spread to half what it was last week. Child Tier Child Care - 266 clusters causing 562 cases  K-12 Schools - 104 clusters causing 422 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 31 clusters causing 100 cases  MediumTier Hospitals - 15 clusters causing 64 cases Organized Athletics & Camps...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  Childcare reclaims its throne as the youth-related clusters race to see who will reach 1.5 times the rest of the non-residential settings combined (they've already surpassed 1 time the sum).  K-12 Schools' clusters continue to outpace on a per-cluster basis though.  Hospitals multiplied their spread by 1.5 and Other Workplaces nearly tripled theirs (though both were relatively low before so...). Child Tier Child Care - 249 clusters causing 457 cases  K-12 Schools - 93 clusters causing 426 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 38 clusters causing 96 cases  MediumTier Organized Athletics & Camps - 32 clusters causing 54 cases  Hospitals - 14 clusters causing 53 cases Colleges & Univers...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  K-12 Schools did the previously imagined impossible and have surpassed Child Care as they each pushed hard to expand dramatically.  K-12 increased by 32%, edging out Child Care which increased "just" 11%... K-12 had a greater number of cases than all non-Child Care/non-residence-based settings combined and Child Care had a greater number than the next 9 combined. Social Gatherings, Organized Athletics reduced slightly but not sufficiently to outpace the increases we're seeing in K-12 Schools and Child Care.  Oh, and Colleges & Universities nearly tripled their spread and Hospitals nearly doubled their's, but since they were low on the list previously, this isn't as alarming as the Child Tier increases.   Child Tie...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  K-12 Schools are working hard to catch up with Child Care, increasing their spread by more than 80% over last week's (and forcing a change to the naming of "Child Care Tier") Child Tier Child Care - 224 clusters causing 286 cases  K-12 Schools - 74 clusters causing 248 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 31 clusters causing 106 cases  Organized Athletics & Camps - 38 clusters causing 85 cases  MediumTier Industrial Settings - 20 clusters causing 51 cases Recreational/Cultural - 7 cluster causing 29 cases Low Tier Hospitals - 16 clusters causing 17 cases  Offices - 6 clusters causing 16 cases Places of Worship - 4 cluster causing 13 cases  Retail & Services ...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  People took more precautions with their Social Gatherings, causing the spread there to drop nearly in half.  Child Care also reduced slightly but remains higher than the next 2 settings combined.  K-12 Schools and Organized Athletics & Camps both saw increases, by 10% and 15% respectively. Child Care Tier Child Care - 215 clusters causing 290 cases  High Tier K-12 Schools - 59 clusters causing 137 cases  Organized Athletics & Camps - 38 clusters causing 104 cases  Social Gatherings - 31 clusters causing 100 cases  MediumTier Industrial Settings - 20 clusters causing 39 cases Low Tier Hospitals - 17 clusters causing 23 cases  Recreational/Cultural - 8 cluster causing 2...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  People clearly are easing up on their precautions again as Social Gatherings ticked up by 1/3 (though Restaurants & Food Courts continue to see relatively low contribution to spread).  Conversely, K-12 Schools reduced their spread to 2/3 their previous level and Hospitals drove their cases down to half!   Child Care Tier Child Care - 216 clusters causing 327 cases  Super High Tier Social Gatherings - 38 clusters causing 184 cases  High Tier K-12 Schools - 51 clusters causing 120 cases  Organized Athletics & Camps - 36 clusters causing 91 cases  MediumTier Hospitals - 18 clusters causing 38 cases  Industrial Settings - 19 clusters causing 36 cases  Colleges & ...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  Child Care actually went down slightly for the first time in a while, though not enough to prevent them from still having more spread more than the next 2 highest spreading settings combined.  K-12 Schools and Organized Athletics & Camps each increased by just over 10%.  Colleges & Universities appear to have realized they had an issue on their hands as they have dropped nearly in half.   Child Care Tier Child Care - 209 clusters causing 334 cases  Super High Tier K-12 Schools - 42 clusters causing 186 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 44 clusters causing 137 cases  Organized Athletics & Camps - 33 clusters causing 105 cases  Medium Tier Hospitals - 20 clusters causing 6...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  Colleges & Universities, Recreational/Cultural, OtherHealthcare, and Travel & Lodging decreased cases while Other Food Establishments remained static... but the other 12 settings increased their spread, with Social Gatherings increasing by 50% and Retail & Services, Other, Offices, and Places of Worship more than doubling.  Oh, and Child Care, of course, maintained it's supreme grip as being way above and beyond the greatest spreader, having more than twice the next setting. Child Care Tier Child Care - 213 clusters causing 363 cases  Super High Tier K-12 Schools - 36 clusters causing 166 cases  Social Gatherings - 50 clusters causing 154 cases  High Tier Organized Athletics & Camps -...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week:  Child Care inched upwards (increasing cases but more concerningly increasing clusters by a third) but K-12 skyrocketed growing to 4 times the number of cases with nearly twice the number of clusters from what those figures from last week and jumping from 9th to 2nd highest.  Hospitals also saw nearly a near doubling of their cases from last week.   Restaurants dropped substantially again, cutting their cases in half and Other Healthcare dropped to just over 1/3 their case count. Child Care Tier Child Care - 201 clusters causing 319 cases  High Tier K-12 Schools - 29 clusters causing 121 cases  Social Gatherings - 51 clusters causing 99 cases  Colleges & Universities - 20 clusters causing 89 cases...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week: Colleges & Universities continue their rapid climb, increasing by more than 50% over last week, as did Industrial Settings and Hospitals.  K-12 Schools doubled their spread. Child Care Tier Child Care - 159 clusters causing 298 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 58 clusters causing 116 cases  Medium Tier Organized Athletics & Camps - 27 clusters causing 80 cases  Colleges & Universities - 14 clusters causing 72 cases  Recreational/Cultural - 14 cluster causing 60 cases Low Tier  Industrial Settings - 16 clusters causing 39 cases  Restauran ts & Food Courts - 40 clusters causing 38 cases  Hospitals - 18 clusters causing 34 cases  K-12 Schools - 16 clusters causing 30 cases  ...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Notable this week: Colleges & Universities nearly tripled their cases from clusters.  Restaurants & Food Courts start to climb again, increasing by 50%.  Other Healthcare, Other Workplaces, K-12 Schools, and Other each slightly more than double. Child Care Tier Child Care - 139 clusters causing 315 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 64 clusters causing 133 cases  Medium Tier Organized Athletics & Camps - 23 clusters causing 69 cases  Recreational/Cultural - 13 cluster causing 58 cases Low Tier  Colleges & Universities - 10 clusters causing 46 cases  Restauran ts & Food Courts - 63 clusters causing 40 cases  Other Healthcare - 11 clusters causing 36 cases  Industrial Settings - 13 clusters caus...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Child Care continues to pick up the pace of spread.  People continued to acknowledge that COVID spreads when eating inside restaurants but still aren't appreciating the spread that occurs anywhere else.  While Restaurants & Food Courts dropped to roughly half week-over-week for the second week in a row and K-12 Schools dropped in half for the first time, Social Gathering spread increased and Recreational/Cultural, Travel & Lodging, Colleges & University each nearly doubled, Places of Worship quadrupled, and all other settings are roughly where they were before. Child Care Tier Child Care - 127 clusters causing 335 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 63 clusters causing 146 cases  Medium Tier Organized Athletics & Camps - 2...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Child Care to pick up the pace and show why nobody can compete.  People are apparently acknowledging that COVID spreads at restaurants but aren't appreciating the spread that occurs anywhere else.  While Restaurants & Food Courts dropped to less than half the spread they had last week, all other settings are roughly where they were before. Child Care Tier Child Care - 101 clusters causing 307 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 59 clusters causing 127 cases  Medium Tier Organized Athletics & Camps - 22 clusters causing 62 cases  Restauran ts & Food Courts - 63 clusters causing 43 cases  Low Tier  Recreational/Cultural - 9 cluster causing 29 cases  Retail & Services - 17 cluster causing 24 cases  In...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Child Care has reclaimed its place at the top as it nearly doubled in spread.  Restaurants & Food Courts and Social Gatherings have each decreased substantially, potentially as a result of people starting to realize that we're back to high levels of spread, but they're still high. Child Care Tier Child Care - 81 clusters causing 273 cases  High Tier Social Gatherings - 49 clusters causing 125 cases  Restauran ts & Food Courts - 59 clusters causing 105 cases  Medium Tier Organized Athletics & Camps - 19 clusters causing 61 cases  Low Tier  Recreational/Cultural - 6 cluster causing 34 cases  Retail & Services - 12 cluster causing 21 cases  Hospitals - 15 clusters causing 20 cases  Industrial Sett...

Just a friendly reminder that the residence-based settings are removed on account of, well, you can't really prevent spread within a place of living, so the effort has to be preventing it from spreading outside and coming in.  Restaurants & Food Courts continue to have a substantial lead on everyone but the cases from them did shrink significantly.  Social Gatherings also continue their lead over many others and, similar to Restaurants & Food Courts has shrunk a bit.  Child Care has definitely re-awakened and is racing to get back its lead altogether.   Organized Athletics & Camps has definitely also picked up its pace.  All others appear roughly as they were before, with the exception of Other Food Establishments which is the last setting to leave the No Clusters Remaining Open tier, which closes it out. Super High Tier - Restaurants apparently decided enough was enough and ended the question of whether there was a race between them and Social Gathe...