The number of active cases of COVID-19 in Watertown has increased more than eight-fold over the past two months, with the total numbers of cases during the pandemic increasing by 60 percent during that time.
Similar to the statewide trend in Massachusetts, Watertown has seen a steady increase of COVID-19 cases. Along with the increases in cases, Watertown has had four more COVID-19 related deaths over the past few weeks, bringing the total number to 28, according to the Town Manager’s Dec. 11, 2020 Coronavirus Update.
The week prior, the Town reported the first two COVID-19 related deaths in Watertown since the Aug. 7 Coronavirus update (two fatalities were reported on Dec. 11). The Town does not release information about the cases, including age.
The number of total cases reported in Watertown have risen from 462 on Oct. 7 to 765 on Dec. 3, according to numbers reported by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH).
The number of cases reported in Watertown over a 14 day period prior to the date went from 15 on Oct. 7 to 123 on Dec. 3. Over the same time period, the percent of positive tests rose from 0.55 percent to 2.81 percent, according to DPH figures.
Watertown, MA COVID-19 Trends 12-13-20 (1) by Charlie Breitrose on Scribd
As of the Dec. 3 DPH report, Watertown remains in the “yellow” category in the DPH’s COVID-19 reporting system, which for a town of its size is 10 or fewer cases per 100,000 residents, or a positive testing rate of 5 percent or less. Both look at the numbers over the prior 14 days. Watertown exceeds the mark for the number of cases per 100,000 residents, with 26.6, but is below the testing rate criteria with a 2.81 percent positive rest rate.
The Watertown Public Schools track the number of students and staff who have tested positive for the virus. According to the School officials, as of Nov. 30, there were two active cases of students and/or staff who tested positive and were learning or working in-person. This is down from five in the Nov. 25 Watertown Public Schools COVID-19 Metrics Dashboard. The updates can be seen here.
A total of 10 Watertown municipal employees who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Dec. 4 Town Manager’s Report. The number was not updated in the Dec. 11 report.
Raises a lot of questions in my mind that it would be nice to see answered:
The more you test, the more positive tests cases you will find.
What is the accuracy of these tests?
Are they instant tests or the ones that take a few days?
A Covid-related death is not necessarily the same as a death *caused* by Covid.
How many of these deaths were in people in senior facilities and how old were they? Why are we not told?
How many deaths occured in Watertown in the same time period due to other communicable diseases?
Good questions. As far as Covid related, these are the ones that go into the State’s total of Covid deaths.
What about the tracing? Has the town identified any areas where a cluster of cases have been confirmed? I am still hearing about a lot of get togethers and people out in bars with no masks. Hard to believe that some of the local establishments haven’t had any cases associated with them.
I would also like to know how many of these deaths are in much older people who are definitely more susceptible to any virus. This information is not readily available on the state website anymore either. Some of the tests are super sensitive and are picking up past exposures to the coronavirus that many people might have in their systems from prior colds. Therefore, there are more positive test results that aren’t necessarily from COVID. Many people die from the flu each year and some of these deaths could be from the flu but they are being categorized as COVID. The hospitals do get more money reimbursed if it’s a COVID diagnosis. If you keep up on the news, there are a lot of false positives and false negatives. The testing is not absolute.
Great job as this data is hard to find, yet alone put into readable format. I would ask all those asking questions about the data(questions are good!) to follow up with out Town and ask who/where our dashboard is, where you can get answers to your questions. I know that the Town sends out a text weekly but it doesn’t show numbers overtime. The fact that we are increasing so fast should be alarming though IMO, and in order to keep the numbers down we should practice social distancing and face masks. I do believe the COVID deaths reported are not due to Flu as this has been debunked in many articles I’ve read. We can all agree that getting information is not easy when it comes to COVID19.