The state reported three new COVID-19 cases in Harvard for the week ending Feb. 26, the same number of cases reported the prior week. This brings the town’s cumulative number of confirmed cases to 559. For the week beginning March 7, the Harvard Public Schools reported three students absent with COVID-19.
According to the state’s weekly vaccination report, 4,613 residents in Harvard were fully vaccinated as of March 1, an increase of one from a week earlier. Another 538 had received one dose of a two-dose vaccine, and 3,066 residents had received a booster dose, 16 more than a week earlier. Using the town clerk’s Nov. 8 population data, the percentage of Harvard residents eligible for the vaccine (5 and older) and fully vaccinated as of March 1 is 85.9%, and the partially vaccinated percentage remains at 10%. These numbers do not include Devens residents or inmates at its Federal Medical Center.
Between March 1 and March 7, the state reported 5,175 confirmed COVID-19 cases, down from 6,664 the previous week. As of March 7, 291 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19 in Massachusetts, 103 fewer than a week earlier, and 46 patients were in ICUs, down from 70 a week earlier. There were 168 COVID-related deaths in the state between March 1 and March 7, 135 fewer than the previous week.
On March 8 the Federal Bureau of Prisons website reported five COVID-19 cases among inmates at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, four fewer than the previous week, and eight cases among staff, three more than the previous week. Since the pandemic began, 390 of the current inmates and 180 staff have recovered from COVID-19; 13 inmates died of the virus.
