May 27, 2020
Worcester, Central Mass. caught in stubbornly high coronavirus numbers
Photo | Edd Cote
Medical personnel preparing for a coronavirus screening program at UMass Memorial Medical Center's University Campus in Worcester
By Riley Garand
Late April was the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, when cases hit their peak across Massachusetts. They peaked, too, in Worcester city and Worcester County within a week of the state’s top daily number.
Since then, though, Massachusetts as a whole has seen a sharper and more consistent drop in cases in the past month than Worcester County and especially the city of Worcester, according to a Worcester Business Journal review of city and state data.
The state’s peak on a seven-day rolling average was 2,249 new cases a day on April 24, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. From then until Tuesday, the average of new cases a day has fallen 63%. Tuesday’s figure was the lowest since March 31.
Worcester County is down 47% from its peak, and its low point came about a week and a half later than the state, on April 11.
Worcester city is down 34% from its peak, and Tuesday’s total was the lowest since April 21. In other words, though cases are trending downward instead of up, the city is in the same place it was roughly a month ago.
Central Massachusetts hospitals have been slow to see much of a decrease in the past month.
Positive coronavirus cases in Central Massachusetts hospitals stood at 253 as of May 20, according to UMass Memorial Health Care. That was the exact same number as a month prior, and down 26% from a peak on May 1.
Patients on ventilators across area hospitals stood at 71 on May 20 — down from a high of 90 on May 11 but up from a month prior.
Across Worcester County, coronavirus cases throughout May have been largely flat following dramatic increases during April.
The seven-day average of new cases per day throughout Worcester County started with 62 on April 1, and increased to 250 by the end of the month. May saw case averages largely in the mid-200s, yet only recently decreased to a low of 152 on Monday, which is close to what was recorded in mid-April before a steady rise began.
The City of Worcester has reported consistent numbers with very little signs of decline in coronavirus cases.
The daily-seven day average on May 22 was 76, which was the same average as a month ago. Decline could be evident only in the past few days, with a lower seven-day average of 66 recorded on Monday, with 23 new cases that day, and another 15 on Tuesday.
Massachusetts, on the other hand, has seen a sharper decline in daily seven-day coronavirus case averages. On May 1 there was an average of 1,906 new cases in the state, but the rate steadily decreased to 888 on May 25, which is the lowest average since the beginning of April.
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