This article has been updated. See editor's note below.
The state reported no new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Harvard this week, and for some unknown reason subtracted one from last week’s total; the town’s cumulative number of cases since the pandemic began is now 20, down from 21 last week. According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Dashboard website, “Case counts for specific cities and towns change throughout the day as data cleaning occurs (removal of duplicate reports within the system) and new demographic information (assigning cases to their city or town of residence) is obtained.” To date, the Press has verified that two residents and two recent residents have died of complications from COVID-19.
Statewide, during the week between Sept. 15 and Sept. 22, confirmed cases increased by 2,441, up from the previous week’s increase of 2,211. There were 102 COVID-19-related deaths during the week ending Sept. 22, up from 83 the previous week.
Locally, at Emerson Hospital, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients increased from zero on Sept. 15 to five on Sept. 22. During that same week, the Memorial and University campuses of the UMass Medical Center in Worcester reported 18 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, the same number as that reported on Sept. 15.
The Bureau of Prisons website reported Sept. 22 that the number of active COVID-19 cases among inmates at the Federal Medical Center in Devens dropped to zero. On Sept. 15, the number of active cases among inmates was one. However, the number of recovered inmates did not increase this week, so it is possible the one positive inmate left the facility. The number of active cases among staff remained at two. Since the COVID-19 outbreak at the medical center, 47 inmates and six staff members have recovered. Two inmates died of complications from COVID-19.
—Compiled by Joan Eliyesil
Editor's note: This article has been updated to report that the state reduced by one the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in Harvard.
