Every week the MA Dept. of Public Health releases numbers for how COVID-19 has impacted the state, and we try to highlight some of these numbers so the community is informed about how COVID is impacting Lynn & the state. Their numbers factor in the past week as well as the week before, giving 2 weeks worth of data.

The City of Lynn is dealing with a serious surge of COVID-19 cases. Last Tuesday a new 24-hr new case record was broken with 210 new cases, breaking the previous record of 196 set only a few weeks ago. Since Dec. 23rd it has been rare for that number to be below 150, and before that numbers were consistently getting higher. We have seen a steady increase of new cases since the end of October, but in good news deaths related to COVID-19 seem to have slowed in the city with only 10 deaths reported in November & 23 in December.

The average daily incidence rate per 100,000 for Lynn over 14 days this week was 128.2. Last week it was at 99.6. The positivity rate this week was 14.46%. Last week this rate was 14.63%, a slight decrease and one of the few times we have seen the positivity rate dip. Lynn has also seen an increase of just over 1,000 total cases, as well as around 10K tests administered, in just 1 week. It is important to note that while testing numbers are currently high this does not mean that case numbers will go up simply because of that, the number to watch is the positivity rate. The higher the positivity rate the more the virus is spreading, regardless of number of tests.

In Massachusetts we are dealing with several pieces of troubling news in regards to the spread of COVID-19. Yesterday there were 74 deaths and 5,500+ cases reported in the state, with a positivity rate of 7.99% (which has been steadily increasing). As calls grow to re-open schools across the state new numbers are being released that may slow that process. From Jan. 7-13 there were 523 students & 407 staffers across the Commonwealth that tested positive for COVID-19. These cases don’t include those learning remotely & are only for those that reported a positive test within 7 days of being inside school buildings. These numbers are from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, who estimate approx. 450,000 students & 75,000 staff currently in public school buildings.

The outlook for the nation is not much better. The United States currently has 23.4 million cases, with 93.2 million cases reported worldwide. Daily records have been broken for new cases & deaths within 24 hours constantly for months, in particular the last several weeks, proving right predictions that the holiday season would lead to higher numbers. The death toll in the US now sits at approx. 389,000, with over 3,973 dying yesterday alone. Last Thursday the 24-hour deaths record was set with just over 4,112 dead before it was broken again this past Tuesday with 4,406.

In Massachusetts there are currently 229 communities in the red category (more than 2/3 of the state) & 53 in the yellow category. Last week there were 219 communities in the red & 52 in the yellow.

In late fall Mass DPH began to use a different system for categorizing communities, based off their populations. Communities with populations less than 10,000 residents, between 10,000 & 50,000 residents, & more than 50,000 residents have had new metrics applied to them. Their results fall into 4 color categories; grey, green, yellow, & red. Positivity rates & average daily cases will continue to be determined by two-week rolling average. Officials say the new categories help to make the community-specific data more nuanced, and better account for increases in cases in smaller communities. They will also incorporate examples where cases at colleges, nursing homes, or jails may push an entire community into the red category. The new metrics are as follows:

Below are the statistics for Lynn & the state.