December 10, 2020
Worcester County smashes COVID record: 4,000 cases in one week
Photo | Grant Welker
The DCU Center field hospital in Worcester opened on patients on Dec. 6.
By Grant Welker
New coronavirus cases in Worcester County smashed records this week, with 4,070 new cases as of Thursday, continuing a distressing post-Thanksgiving trend.
That number and the statewide one — 33,446 cases in seven days — both blew by previous highs, according to Massachusetts Department of Public Health data. The city of Worcester also set a new single-week record for the city: 1,268 new cases, bringing the tally so far to 11,395.
"The governor used the term skyrocketing. That is accurate," the city's commissioner of health and human services, Dr. Matilde Castiel, said in a press conference Thursday. "We're now seeing a spike from Thanksgiving."
Those spiking numbers have spurred the opening of a field hospital at the DCU Center in Worcester and another one planned in Lowell, as well as business operations restrictions meant to more sharply limit how many people can gather in one place.
The number of new cases across Massachusetts in the past week surpasses the total registered from the start of the pandemic through mid-April. It also beats the previous one-week high, set just a week prior, by 80%.
The state's rate of new positive tests per 100,000 in the past two weeks jumped to 50 as of Thursday. Across Central Massachusetts, 15 communities, including Fitchburg, Leominster, Framingham and Worcester, beat that mark.
[Related: UMass Memorial CEO, urging vaccinations, says he enrolled in clinical trial himself]
Worcester County smashed its previous record, set two weeks ago, by 72%.
The city of Worcester has also been hit hard. Positive case rates in the city of Worcester stand at 26%.
"That's just way too high," Dr. Michael Hirsh, the medical director of the Worcester Division of Public Health, said.
Deaths aren't rising as sharply but are on the upswing, with 48 new deaths in the past week in Worcester County representing the highest one-week tally since late May and early June. Statewide, 335 new deaths in the past week bring the total so far to 11,209. Deaths in the city if Worcester rose by seven this week to hit a new total of 313.
Hospitalizations continue to rise as well.
UMass Memorial Health Care and Saint Vincent Hospital have, between their two systems, 192 total coronavirus patients, according to the city. That's up 48 from a week prior. Of those, 40 are in intensive care, an increase of six from a week ago. Patient deaths between the two hospital systems surpassed 400 this week, now standing at 408 since the pandemic began.
The hospital systems' own workers are increasingly affected, with a total of 934 who've tested positive. That's up by 149 from a week ago.
The latest data on rising cases comes as Worcester's DCU Center opened Sunday as a field hospital for less-severe coronavirus patients. As of Wednesday night, the hospital had 30 patients — half from Worcester hospitals and others from Boston Medical Center, South Shore Hospital in Weymouth and Holy Family Hospital in Haverhill.
[Related: Baker outlines state plan to vaccinate for COVID-19]
Castiel, gave Worcester's weekly press conference outside City Hall on Thursday afternoon because Edward Augustus, the city manager, has tested positive for the virus. He is quarantining at home and said to be doing well.
Cases may not peak until mid-January, Castiel said, and vaccines beginning to be distributed first to health care workers and the highest-risk patients will not make a major difference until some time into next year.
Nationally, new daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths have all peaked this week. Hospitalizations stood at more than 106,000 through Wednesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. National cases stand at more than 15.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, and deaths have surpassed 290,000.
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