Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

April 3, 2020

Worcester area has more coronavirus deaths than Phoenix, Tampa Bay or Minneapolis

Photo | Grant Welker The CVS store at 720 Boston Turnpike in Shrewsbury previously hosted a coronavirus screening center.
By Grant Welker

The Worcester metropolitan area has more reported coronavirus deaths than areas several times larger, including Phoenix, Tampa Bay or Minneapolis, showing how much the region has borne an unusually high number of cases relatively early in the pandemic.

The Worcester area has the 35th most cases of any metro area in the country, according to a Worcester Business Journal analysis of a New York Times database, even though its population makes it only the 59th largest.

The New York Times counted 13 deaths in the Worcester metro area, citing reports from state and local health agencies, hospitals and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Worcester County, which forms the Worcester metro area with Connecticut's Windham County, had 12 deaths as of Thursday, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The Worcester area's number of deaths linked to the coronavirus outbreak placed it ahead of some far larger areas, including Sacramento, Baltimore, Orlando, Kansas City, Charlotte, San Antonio and Austin, Texas. In New England, it's the sixth highest, behind Boston (95 deaths), Springfield (21) and three areas in Connecticut: Bridgeport (65), Hartford (29) and New Haven (17).

[Related: UMass Memorial CEO: Hospitalized COVID-19 patients doubling every 3-4 days]

The New York City metro area has by far the most deaths, with 2,397 as of the Times' latest tally. Detroit has 374, New Orleans has 241 and Seattle has 239.

Worcester County itself reached the top 10% nationally for its rate of coronavirus cases, and its death rate was in the top 11% as of the start of the day Wednesday, according to an analysis of a separate Times database.

Worcester County's coronavirus case rate per 100,000 people was 53. That's 225th out of 2,181 counties nationally. The region's total number of cases is in the top 3%, a ranking skewed by Worcester County's relatively high population count.

As of Thursday afternoon, Worcester County had 667 confirmed coronavirus cases. That number has doubled roughly every four days.

Columbia University researchers in New York have predicted Worcester County could have 20,000 coronavirus cases by Aug. 1 — and that's a best-case scenario if strict controls limit the virus's spread. If transmission of coronavirus cannot be minimized by measures put in place, Worcester County would see 670,000 cases, or more than 80% of its population infected, the researchers said.

Sign up for Enews

WBJ Web Partners

Most Recent

Most Recent

2 Comments

Anonymous
April 9, 2020
It doesn’t matter if a stay-at-home order was issued. Worcester refuses to comply. Nothing will change unless Governor Baker imposes curfews and costly fines. This is the only way this joke of an order is going to work. He should also designate days to go shopping, reduce the hours of businesses again and enforce all businesses limit the number of people inside the stores. The proof of what I’m saying is in the number of deaths in Germany compared to other countries that have similar number of cases and even less. They have fines if you are caught violating any of their strict rules. That by itself has contained the virus from spreading. I hope our governor realizes soon enough that he needs to close all of our parks. Every park in Worcester County is packed every day/night, and vandalism continues to take place daily. And I also hope he realizes as long we are allowed to go grocery shopping, pick up a takeout, go to Dunkin Donuts, go to the pharmacy whenever we want and as often as we want nothing is going to change! Are you listening, Mr. Baker?!
Anonymous
April 4, 2020
We must wear a mask! A Texas country is fining people without a mask $1,000.
Order a PDF