COVID hits Abington prom; rates up for 6th week on the South Shore

Fred Hanson, The Patriot Ledger
·4 min read
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ABINGTON – COVID-19 cases remained on the upswing, rising for the sixth straight week on the state and local level, reports released Thursday by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health show.

In 23 communities on the South Shore, the number of cases over the two weeks ending April 30 rates rose 20.5% to 2,049 cases. That is higher than the statewide increase of 14.5% in the same period. Case counts rose in 20 out of the 23 South Shore communities.

The number of cases in the region over the two week period was 2,049, up from 1,700 the pervious week. Cases are still one-tenth of what they were at the height of the omicron surge in early January.

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The count only includes lab-confirmed cases, not ones found with home test kits.

Three communities had rates higher than the statewide average of 32.5 cases per day per 100,000 people: Hanover, Norwell and Randolph.

Only three communities saw cases decline: Cohasset, Duxbury and Weymouth.

In Abington, high school Principal Jonathan Bourn asked parents to watch their children for COVID-19 symptoms and to get them tested if any are present.

"We identified numerous cases of COVID-19 among attendees of the Abington High School prom which took place Friday (April 29) evening," Bourn wrote in a letter to parents.

Abington High School seniors participate in the grand prom march into the auditorium on Thursday, April 14, 2022.
Abington High School seniors participate in the grand prom march into the auditorium on Thursday, April 14, 2022.

In a report released by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday, there were 26 students and eight staff members in the Abington Public Schools with COVID-19 for the week ending Wednesday. The Abington schools had 2,154 students in their annual Oct. 1 enrollment report to state education officials, 586 at the high school.

Overall, the education department reported 8,079 students with COVID-19 in the state for the week ending May 4, less than 1% of the overall enrollment. The number of cases among staff was 2,636.

The state health department reported 4,376 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total for the more than two years of the pandemic to 1,634,308 cases.

The number of people in hospitals with COVID-19 also rose to 547 from 431 a week before. There were 45 patients in intensive care units, up from 31 last week, and the number of people on breathing equipment rose to 18 from 10 a week before.

There were 13 new deaths reported on Thursday, bringing the total for the pandemic to 19,181. There were 52 deaths in the past week, up from 31 the prior week.

The Centers for Disease Control reports 994,187 deaths nationwide from COVID-19 as of Thursday, with the total expected to reach 1 million later this month.

The following is a list of the number of cases by community for the two weeks ending April 30, the average daily rate of cases per 100,000 people over the two-week period and the total number of cases since the pandemic began. The statistics do not include the results of home tests.

Abington: 60 cases; 23.5 rate; 3,924 total

Braintree: 171 cases; 30.8 rate; 9,073 total

Carver: 25 cases; 14.6 rate; 2,238 total

Cohasset: 21 cases; 20.4 rate; 1,188 total

Duxbury: 46 cases; 21.7 rate; 2,577 total

Halifax: 16 cases; 15 rate; 1,491 total

Hanover: 70 cases; 34.8 rate; 4,166 total

Hanson: 26 cases; 17.3 rate; 2,273 total

Hingham:102 cases; 30.4 rate; 4,354 total

Holbrook: 48 cases; 30.2 rate; 2,661 total

Hull: 34 cases; 24.8 rate, 1,394 total.

Kingston: 33 cases; 17.2 rate; 2,929 total

Marshfield: 92 cases; 25.4 rate; 4,454 total

Milton: 104 cases; 25.8 rate; 5,931 total

Norwell: 56 cases; 37.3 rate; 2,143 total

Pembroke: 43 cases; 16.4 rate; 3,666 total

Plymouth: 173 cases; 19.7 rate; 13,365 total

Quincy: 442 cases; 31.1 rate; 18,995 total

Randolph: 159 cases; 33 rate; 9,773 total

Rockland: 49 cases; 19.3 rate; 4,337 total

Scituate: 53 cases; 20.9 rate; 2,958 total

Weymouth: 186 cases; 23.6 rate; 11,026 total

Whitman: 40 cases; 18.4 rate; 3,390 total

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: South Shore, state post sixth straight weeks of higher COVID-19 cases