March 5, 2021
Decline in Worcester County COVID cases slows
Photo | Grant Welker
UMass Memorial Health Care's HealthAlliance campus in Leominster
By Grant Welker
New coronavirus cases are still slowing in Worcester County, but not as fast as they were a few weeks ago.
That reality, shown in new Massachusetts Department of Public Health data Thursday, indicates both how suddenly cases dropped in February but also the ongoing challenge of keeping positive momentum going while state business restrictions are loosened.
Worcester County had 1,128 new cases in the past week through Thursday, hitting 65,967 roughly a year after the county's first COVID-19 case was reported. Week-over-week, cases dropped by nearly 10%, compared to a 35% drop three weeks prior and a 25% drop one week in late January.
Deaths in Worcester County rose by 31 in the past week to hit 2,055 since the pandemic began.
State cases rose by 9,006, the first time new weekly cases across Massachusetts were below 10,000 since late October and early November. Weekly cases peaked at one point in January at just over 40,000. The state now has 554,360 total cases. That's the 16th most of any state, according to a New York Times tally, and 33rd on a per-capita basis.
Massachusetts also has 15,967 deaths through Thursday, including 310 in the past week.
In Worcester, city officials said Thursday that 261 new cases have been reported in the past week, for a new total of 20,792. City deaths have risen by three in the past week to hit 410.
Nationally, new cases have roughly flattened in the past week. The United States has recorded nearly 29 million cases and more than 520,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. Worldwide, more than 115 million cases have been reported and more than 2.5 million deaths.
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