Mass. COVID-19 hospitalizations increase for third straight day

BOSTON -- Gov. Charlie Baker got his flu shot Thursday and talked up the importance of Massachusetts residents getting vaccinated to ease the burden on a health care sector that is eyeing the possibility of a second COVID-19 surge this fall.

"I would just say to all of those folks in Massachusetts who admire, respect and appreciate the heroic work that was done by so many people in our health care community last spring, that for them and for yourselves, you should go out and get a flu vaccine this year so that you and they can feel confident that as they deal with respiratory issues this fall and the potential of a second surge, more and more people in Massachusetts will have protected themselves from having the flu pile on top of a potential second surge associated with COVID," the governor said at a Roslindale CVS.

Baker gave Bay State colleges and universities a bit of a pat on the back Thursday when he said that data his administration gathered show that colleges and their students "are doing their part" to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The return of students from around the world to Massachusetts campuses had been a source of great concern for some in recent weeks.

And on Beacon Hill, there is finally a clearer picture of how and when lawmakers plan to deal with the budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues said this week that he's working off an assumption that fiscal year 2021 tax collections will be down $5 billion from last year, and that lawmakers will likely need to dip "deeply" into the state's $3.5 billion rainy day fund.

Rodrigues said his goal is to have a fiscal 2021 budget passed by the end of October, when the $16.5 billion temporary budget keeping the state afloat is expected to run out.

New cases in Fall River

In Fall River, 10 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Thursday, according to Mayor Paul Coogan.

One more person died due to COVID-19, Coogan reported. To date now, 132 residents have died due to the virus.

Hospitalizations Up For a Third Day

COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased by more than 20 percent since Monday, increasing by 42 patients as of midday Wednesday and by another 25 patients as of midday Thursday, according to the Department of Public Health's latest data update.

There were 377 people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Massachusetts as of midday Thursday, including 64 patients in an intensive care unit. The three-day average number of hospitalized patients was 346 in DPH's report Thursday, up from 308 two days earlier.

DPH confirmed 419 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday from tests of 27,644 people. That works out to a positive test rate of 1.51 percent, nearly double the seven-day average positive test rate of 0.8 percent.

The new tests announced in Thursday's report pushed the total number of people tested for COVID-19 in Massachusetts over two million.

DPH also announced the recent COVID-19 deaths of 15, raising the virus's death toll to 9,260 people when counting those with both confirmed and probable cases of the coronavirus.

Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed Feb. 1, 124,139 people in Massachusetts have become infected with the virus.

Cold Weather Visitation Plan in the Works

Expect details late next week from Gov. Charlie Baker about how long-term care facilities might be able to accommodate visits or interactions between residents and loved ones even as the weather turns cold and the outdoor visits that have become a lifeline for many must end.

"I've seen my dad maybe three times in the course of the past five months," Baker said Thursday. The governor has spoken about his father, who is in his 90s and lives in a long-term care setting, and the emotions of not being able to visit him at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple times in recent months.

"I have a very personal appreciation for the difficulty associated with keeping seniors safe and the challenges associated with that. I do think outdoor visitation has been a big win, based on the feedback that we've gotten, and we've been talking to folks in the industry and folks in the public health world about how to create further opportunities for engagement, recognizing you can't stay outdoors given the changing nature of the weather," Baker said during his Thursday press conference.

Since June, residents of nursing homes, rest homes and assisted living facilities have been able to receive guests during pre-scheduled outdoor visits conducted under specific guidelines.

The governor suggested Thursday that a cold-weather plan is in the works. "I fully expect I'll have more to say about that in about a week."

CDC Eviction Moratorium Not Enough, Activists Say

A federal moratorium aims to ban evictions through the end of the year, but housing justice advocates are worried that low-income renters could still "fall through the cracks" of that policy and want the state to step in with additional action.

On Thursday, one month before the Massachusetts eviction and foreclosure moratorium expires, activists urged lawmakers to approve legislation (H 4878 / S 2831) that would extend the moratorium for a year after the state of emergency ends, freeze rents in that span, and create a fund to support small landlords financially impacted by the outbreak.

The state-level proposal -- which has 90 cosponsors and is before the Housing Committee -- would be a stronger option both during the remainder of the pandemic and in the recovery period, the City Life / Vida Urbana group wrote.

"While the Centers for Disease Control recently issued a limited eviction moratorium that applies nationwide through the end of 2020, advocates maintain it is not a solution and fails to provide the clear, strong protection or path to long-term recovery offered by the Housing Stability bill," the group wrote. "Many questions and concerns have been raised about how the federal moratorium will operate and whether it will allow vulnerable tenants to fall through the cracks. Advocates also point out that the federal measure does not provide any relief at all for homeowners or small-scale landlords, and does not address the looming rental arrearages that have accumulated since the pandemic caused massive economic disruption."

Gov. Charlie Baker could trigger a second extension to keep the Massachusetts moratorium in place past its current Oct. 17 expiration, though he has not indicated if he plans to do so. Rose Webster-Smith, a program coordinator with Springfield No One Leaves, said in Thursday's press release that her group is planning "eviction blockade trainings in all four counties of Western Mass" to prepare for a potential wave of housing removals, which some estimates have said could total tens or hundreds of thousands. "If our government doesn't act, it's going to be the community rising up to protect our neighbors," Webster-Smith said. "If it comes to that we'll be ready to block evictions." - Chris Lisinski 3:39 PM Thu

Wrentham Uptick Tied to Nursing Home

Wrentham was among the 17 towns classified at the highest risk level for COVID-19 transmission in this week's municipal testing breakdown from the Department of Public Health, and town officials there are attributing the uptick in new cases -- 15 in the past two weeks -- to a cluster at a nursing home.

Town administrator Kevin Sweet said in a statement that local officials feel it is "imperative residents know that these cases are tied to one cluster in one facility; however, we are taking these numbers very seriously and are urging everyone, please, to closely follow COVID-19 guidance to protect themselves and others."

"Wear your mask in public, practice social distancing from others outside your household, wash your hands frequently, and please, if you feel sick or are experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, stay home," he said.

A cumulative total of 239 cases had been logged in Wrentham as of Wednesday. Thursday's statement from town officials did not identify the nursing home that was experiencing the cluster of COVID-19 cases.

Active Case Count Continues Its Climb

There are more than 300 more active cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts this week than there were last week and the rate at which new cases are being diagnosed continues to outpace the rate at which people are recovering.

The Department of Public Health reported Wednesday that there were 5,287 people in Massachusetts under isolation with confirmed cases of COVID-19. That's up by 329 cases or 6.6 percent from the 4,958 active cases DPH reported the prior week.

The number of people with active cases of the highly-contagious virus has been steady or climbing for more than two months as Massachusetts has stalled out in the third of four reopening phases, and as some school districts and college campuses welcome students physically back to school.

During the time period that the number of active cases has been growing, the number of tests processed each day has generally been on the rise, too, and the share of tests that come back positive has fallen to its low point of 0.8 percent.

Between the report published Sept. 9 and the report released Sept. 16, Massachusetts confirmed 2,324 new cases of COVID-19 -- about 350 cases more than were confirmed the previous week. Over the same time period, 1,896 people recovered from their bouts with the illness and health officials confirmed 99 more deaths linked to the virus.

When the state first began reporting the number of recoveries and number of people under isolation on June 3, there were 7,012 people isolated with active cases of COVID-19. That number of active cases rose to 7,300 in the June 10 report and then fell until settling at 2,586 as of both July 8 and July 15. The number of active coronavirus cases has been climbing ever since.