Massachusetts has an average positive test rate for COVID-19 Attention has been received For good reason – in recent weeks.
The state’s average positive test rate for coronavirus has been below 1 percent since the beginning of September, prompting some to ask whether the state should move on to the next stage. But when aRegarding the sinking positive average in late August, Governor Charlie Baker said that to keep an eye on the resumption of schools and colleges in Massachusetts, the state would remain stable for that time.
Last week he reiterated that message when asked about the consistently low positive test rate, According to NBC 10 Boston.
“Both of these are really big and really important,” Baker said, focusing on schools rather than moving forward with the next phase of school resumption. “Our focus will be there for the next few weeks. We’ll talk about other stuff when we get to the past. “
In an interview with Boston.com, Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, explained the importance of a positive test rate in Covid-19 epidemic surveillance in Massachusetts.
He said it was important that any test criteria or metric was not a decisive factor in the state’s reopening, as each element was “limited” in the information and understanding it provided of eruption information.
“It can never be a special number.” “It will be about the big picture.”
The percentage rate is a key metric to understand the meaning of the number of confirmed cases in terms of the number of tests, he said.
“We’re seeing a number of cases every day, just a low number, and if it goes ahead, we’re worried,” he said. “But if it is proceeding as a result of further testing, it may not really be representative of further infection. Then we need percentage positivity. If your percentage of positivity is low, it may be because your number of infections is low. But it also means that you are testing enough to not miss too many cases. “
In other words, if the average positive test rate in your community was 90 percent, but you have a low number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, it indicates that many infections have not been caught.
“You should do a lot of tests that come out negative if you’re successfully searching for and finding positive people,” Dorone said.
So, in recent weeks the state has continued to file hundreds of new cases on most weekdays, while Massachusetts has also stepped up its testing.
“Most of the days have been in the 300s, but if you’re testing more, your percentage will go away by now,” Dorone said. “If you are checking more and you have a problem, you will get more cases. If you’re testing more and you don’t get more cases – you’re still in that 300 range – then you’re in a much better position. “
Until WednesdayIn Massachusetts, 9,036 people have died from Covid-19 and 123,720 cases have been reported in the state since the outbreak began. In the latest daily dashboard, 295 new positive cases and 20 new deaths have been reported in the state.
On other metrics State COVID-19 dashboardThe doctor said it helps measure how far the disease has spread in the community, including the number of cases per capita. But what is the most important metric for monitoring the epidemic in the state is measuring whether there are enough healthcare resources to handle current cases, he said.
“That’s why we took the initiative to ‘pinch the curve’ in the first place, as well as at home and business closures – it was all about hospitals.” So it’s obviously the main part of the dashboard. It’s about the capacity of the hospital, the three-day average of sewerage patients in the hospital and then the number of hospitals using the increased capacity. And then of course, ultimately death is clearly complicated. “
Overall, Dorothy said she felt the data released by Massachusetts was “very good”, adding that she believes state and public health officials have been “very, very transparent” in providing dashboards and raw metrics online. .
“We’ve done a wonderful job as a state,” he said. “It’s clear that the people of Massachusetts understand what we’re doing here and why we need to do it and do it. And it also re-opens to show that it can happen even after a big upswing. Even if not on a stay-at-home order, it can be maintained. “
If anyone in their community gets overwhelmed by looking at the data dashboard while trying to understand the COVID-19 threat, Doron recommends checking out the “heat map” Published weekly by state Which breaks down the risk for coronavirus for every municipality in the state, as illustrated by color-coding. Those maps, he said, simultaneously consider different data metrics.
“You are not responsible for being confused or misled by a large increase in the test to run a percentage down or something else,” he said. “So it will take into account all those factors.”
And even if you’re in a “Massachusetts hotspot,” Dorothy assured that the state is still “in a much better place than many parts of the country.”
But just because Massachusetts is doing relatively well to keep the virus at bay, Doctor Cutter still warns people of “epidemic fatigue.”
Social distance, wear of facial ingots, and good hygiene must continue, although re-opening continues.
“We won’t stop masking and giving away, even if we have the vaccine.” “This is how we do things for a very long time. But when we do that, we can do most things. People still worry, ‘Should I have my hair done and should I dine at a restaurant restaurant outside?’ There is a reason it is valid. It is allowed because it is not yet associated with a major shock. So everyone still has left [assess] They have their own level of risk-taking, but it’s worth doing everything with the right precautions. “
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