city's rates of known new infections improved to 11.6 per 100,000 over
the most recent 14 days. That's down from 15.3 last week.
Test positivity rates also declined again, to 2.17%, according to data
released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health today [1].
In fact, Framingham's rate was lower than the state-wide average of 11.8
per 100,000 people this week, putting the entire Commonwealth firmly in
Gov. Baker's red zone. The Baker administration still only looks at
known new cases per 100K and not testing positivity rates or testing per
capita when determining red-zone designations.
Number of tests administered in Framingham were roughly similar this
week vs. last.
A couple of MetroWest communities now report higher new infection and
positivity rates than Framingham: Marlborough, at 12.3 per 100K and
2.7%; and Ashland, at 12.8 per 100K and 2.63%. You can see my latest
interactive map of known infection rates per 100K people on the District
2 Framingham website:
http://www.district2framingham.com/2020/10/29/framingham-still-in-covid-red-zone-but-improved-ma-rates-soar#htmlwidget-3
Framingham still qualifies for free Covid-19 testing. The drive-in
testing site at Walsh Middle School runs through this Saturday. Starting
Monday, Nov. 2, there will be drive-in testing at a new location: TJX
offices on Rte. 30 (770 Cochituate Road), Mondays through Saturdays from
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone is eligible, no appointment or insurance is
needed.
The state-wide Covid rate of more than 10 known new infections per 100K
has placed Massachusetts on Connecticut's quarantine list. Anyone coming
from MA who stays in CT for more than 24 hours must fill out a travel
form and self quarantine for 14 days.
New York State now "strongly discourages" travel to and from
Massachusetts. While MA meets NY's quarantine threshold, it is New York
policy not to require quarantines for border states.
The website CovidExitStrategy.org [2] downgraded Massachusetts from
"trending poorly" to "uncontrolled spread", its lowest rating.
While Massachusetts known cases and positivity rates are still lower
than many other states, our estimated "R0", or re-infection rate, is
among the highest in the U.S. CovidActNow [3] estimates it at 1.2, which
means each infected person spreads it to an average of 1.2 other people.
That might not sound like a lot, but the difference between 1.0 (cases
stay stable) and 1.2 is actually quite substantial. One researcher
explained that a reinfection rate of 1.11 (the U.S. average) would cause
cases to double in about five weeks.
Note that R0 is only an estimation. And Covid-19 seems to spread in such
a way that many ill people don't spread it to anyone else at all, while
a few people infect many others in so-called "super spreader" events.
(Another metric, called K [4], measures whether spreading tends to be
generally the same among all sick people or highly dissimilar).