Updated: December 18, 2020
With 1,390 more cases, Worcester sets another COVID record
Photo | Grant Welker
Worcester City Hall
The City of Worcester has set another single-week record in new COVID-19 cases, city officials reported Friday, a number boosted in part by an extra reporting day because of Thursday's snowstorm.
The city reported 1,390 new cases in the past week, bringing Worcester's total so far throughout the pandemic to 12,785.
Regardless of the exact reporting period, the city's cases remain around all-time highs, tracking consistently with Worcester County and Massachusetts cases that have generally flattened at all-time highs.
Worcester County surpassed 4,000 new weekly cases in the week ending Thursday for the second straight week, as cases near 34,000 since the pandemic began, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. New Massachusetts cases exceeded 32,000 for the second straight week, with statewide cases totaling more than 292,000.
"The numbers aren't going in the right direction," Worcester Mayor Joe Petty said in a press conference in City Hall on Friday afternoon. "In fact, they're pretty bad."
Worcester's deaths have also crept up, with eight new fatalities in the past week bringing the city's total so far to 321.
The two city-based hospital systems, Saint Vincent and UMass Memorial Health Care, have a total of 238 inpatient cases, a rise of 46 from a week prior, Petty said. The number of those in intensive care rose by 16 to 56, and the number of deaths by 10 to 428. The two hospital systems also have a total of 1,084 employees who've tested positive since the start of the pandemic, an increase of 150 in the past week. Both hospital systems began vaccinations for front-line caregivers this week.
More than 30 coronavirus patients are at the DCU Center field hospital in Worcester, which has a capacity of more than 200 beds.
Dr. Michael Hirsh, the medical director of the Worcester Division of Public Health, cautioned that a few difficult months at least remain ahead, as the vaccine is rolled out first among healthcare workers and the highest-risk populations before they're made available to the rest of the population.
Petty urged the public to continue to wear masks, stay safely distanced from one another, and to rethink any holiday plans that could put anyone in danger. Spiking case numbers indicate people generally didn't heed public officials' advice to stay home for Thanksgiving, he said.
"We are begging you to take it seriously," Petty said.
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