MILFORD, Mass. — Since before the holidays, Milford languished for weeks in the Covid red zone, posting, at times, positivity rates soaring past 10%.
But early last month, Covid eased its grip on this Worcester County town of 28,000 and it finally moved into the yellow, or intermediate risk, category in the state’s weekly Public Health Report.
And there Milford remains -- but with a caveat. Because for the first time since turning yellow, Covid cases are not only up -- so is the percent of the population testing positive -- with the latter number jumping from 3.56% to 4.57% between February 25 and March 4. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reports Milford’s average daily incidence rate climbed in the same period from 18.3 cases/100,000 residents to 25.3 cases.
Milford is hardly the only Massachusetts community experiencing what appears to be a Covid comeback. One hundred and two communities reported higher infection numbers the first week in March. Additionally, 80 of those also reported higher positivity rates. That’s a sharp increase from the week before when 46 communities saw Covid numbers increase.
“We definitely are not in a position to take our foot off the gas pedal at this point,” said Sowmya Viswanathan, MD, MBA, chief medical officer at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester. “I mean it just indicates to you that infection is still lingering, still out there in the community.”
What’s encouraging, Viswanathan said, is that this slight rise in cases has not so far been accompanied by a rise in hospitalizations or deaths -- with infections that seem to be controllable.
“Probably mild or a little bit on the lower end of moderate side, but nothing as astounding as it was during Surge One and Surge Two,” she said. “It could be that people are getting out more especially now that the weather has improved over the last few weeks.”
It could also be that Covid variants that are more transmissible are circulating in a higher concentration -- but that’s hard to determine when little genomic sequencing is done on test samples that come back positive.
“I think it’s definitely watchful waiting,” Viswanathan said. “Which is going to tell us let’s look at how the next couple of weeks look and continue to use precautions.”
In a couple of weeks, it will actually be spring. But on a day that looked like a reasonable facsimile, sans the warmth, some remained hopeful that despite the discouraging data, the pandemic was in its final stages.
“I think it’s just important we stay optimistic,” said Trevor Benoit of Uxbridge. “The spring coming should be our motivation to keep fighting as hard as we can to not get complacent so we can get back to normal living as soon as possible.”
“I’ve had both my shots already so I’m feeling comfortable and optimistic,” said Lois Cooper of Milford. “And just the fact that it’s gonna get warmer and we can be outside that makes life so much better. And now that everybody’s going to be getting their second shots, just to be able to be together with them it changes your life.”
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