Corrected and updated Dec. 4, 2020, 12 p.m.
Town Administrator Tim Bragan told the Select Board at its Dec. 1 meeting that COVID-19 cases among town employees are increasing. As a result, Town Hall will be open by appointment only starting Dec. 9, or sooner if the COVID-19 situation worsens dramatically. (See this week’s Notice Board.)
The state reported four new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Harvard for the week ending Nov. 27, and six new confirmed cases for the week ending Dec. 3; the town’s cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began is now 44. To date, the Press has verified that two residents and two residents who moved away from Harvard just before the pandemic began died of complications from COVID-19.
Statewide, during the week between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, confirmed cases increased by 17,114, down slightly from the previous week’s increase of 17,286. There were 223 COVID-19-related deaths during the week ending Dec. 1, up from 189 the previous week.
The number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in the state was 1,191 on Dec. 1; 239 of those were in intensive care units. Those numbers were up from a week earlier on Nov. 24, when 954 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, with 205 of those in intensive care.
In the week ending Dec. 1, the Bureau of Prisons website again reported no active COVID-19 cases among inmates at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, but the number of active cases among staff increased from six to eight. Since the COVID-19 outbreak at the medical center, 44 current inmates and 12 staff members have recovered, and two inmates have died of complications from COVID-19.
Editor’s Note: This article contains updated information from the state’s COVID-19 Response Reporting website.
