Since this site’s last report on the Massachusetts COVID-19 Community Tracing Collaborative (CTC) 3 weeks ago, tracing teams have phoned approximately 30,000 of persons confirmed positive in the state, have reached close to 20,000 of them and have interviewed as many as 10,000 of their close contacts. Caller ID phone exchanges 833 or 857 have been utilized to initiate contact. The number of close contacts reported per confirmed COVID-19 positive case has diminished from 2 to 1. The cumulative total confirmed COVID-19 positive cases stands at 94,895 in Massachusetts, where a total of 562,323 COVID-19 tests have been performed.
The augmented COVID-19 testing, primarily led by public health departments across the state, consists of test sites at small, community-based teaching hospitals and Community Health Centers, along with additional mobile and pop-up tent testing clinics.
Since May 11 the city of Lawrence, MA spiked in new COVID-19 positive cases. Between May 11 and May 20, the total confirmed cases increased from 2274 to 2729, and total deaths went from 95 to 109.At a Press Conference that day, Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera joined by Governor Baker, a host of state and local health officials, alerted residents to free testing sites: Lawrence General Hospital (LGH) and Greater Lawrence Family Health Center. Through a public-private agreement, Hologic, Inc. – a commercial laboratory, has provided 15,000 test kits to LGH. Otherwise the rate of new infection, across the Commonwealth has continued to diminish, for two weeks, with 8% testing COVID-19 positive out the total tests performed.
Governor Baker announced, this week, the intention of the Commonwealth to deliver its long-term testing strategy to the Federal government. This plan known as the Strategic Testing Expansion Program, or STEP, calls for increasing COVID-19 testing to 45,000 tests per day by the end of July and up to a rate of 75, 000 tests per day by the end of 2020. Currently the daily rate of tests for COVID-19 infection runs around 30,000.
The Medical Project 