The state reported five new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Harvard for the week ending April 8, bringing the town’s cumulative number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began to 129. During the week of April 12, no students or staff at Harvard schools tested positive for COVID-19. Five students or staff were in quarantine because of close contact with someone with the virus.
According to the state’s weekly town-by-town vaccination report, 1,273 Harvard residents were fully vaccinated as of April 8, an increase of 223 over the prior week’s number. Partially vaccinated residents increased by 140, bringing that total to 1,073. It is unclear if these numbers include Devens residents or Federal Medical Center (FMC) Devens inmates. According to Town Clerk Marlene Kenney, Harvard’s population, including Devens residents but not FMC inmates, was 5,825 on March 2, based on voter registration numbers and the annual town census.
Statewide, during the week between April 6 and April 13, confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 13,129, down from the previous week’s increase of 13,608. There were 75 COVID-19-related deaths that same week, down from 185 the week before. On April 13 the number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in the state was 714, down from 725 a week earlier. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units also decreased over that same week, from 169 to 165.
On April 13 the Bureau of Prisons website reported three active COVID-19 cases among inmates at the Federal Medical Center in Devens after reporting no inmate cases a week earlier. No cases were reported among staff members. As of April 13, 365 inmates had been fully vaccinated, only one more than the prior week. Staff vaccination numbers remained at 341. Since the pandemic began, 378 of the current inmates were infected with COVID-19 and recovered, 63 staff have recovered, and 10 inmates have died.
Editor’s Note: The state uses federal census data for town and city populations; for Harvard, that data includes the last census count of the inmates at the Federal Medical Center in Devens. As a result, the state’s population number for the town of Harvard is about 1,100 too high, and its age and race numbers are off as well. Because the Boston Globe uses the state’s numbers to report vaccination rates for each town, its numbers for Harvard are not accurate.
