South Shore COVID-19 cases drop after nine weeks of gains, state reports
QUINCY – After rising for nine straight weeks, the number of COVID-19 cases in the state and region declined, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported Thursday.
There was also a sharp drop in COVID-19 cases among staff and students in the state's schools, according to a report from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
In 23 communities on the South Shore, the number of COVID-19 cases declined by 17.4% in the weekly breakdown of cases, going from 3,552 cases last week to 2,934 this week, the state health department said.
Case counts dropped in all but two of the region's communities: Hull and Marshfield. In both cases, the increases were small: a single case in Hull, three in Marshfield.
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Statewide, cases declined by 18.8%, going from 50,455 over 14 days to 40,960 for the same period in this week's report. The statewide rate has dropped from 51.7 cases per day per 100,000 people to 42.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reported 6,106 COVID-19 cases among the state's K-12 students for the week ending on Wednesday. That's down from 9,803 cases in the previous weekly report. Cases among school staff also dropped, from 2,926 the previous week to 1,941.
Levels of the virus in the region's wastewater, a predictor of future cases, have been on a mostly steady decline since May 17, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority reported. The MWRA's South Region includes seven South Shore municipalities.
Only lab-confirmed cases are included in the state health department report, not ones found with home test kits.
Two communities had rates higher than the statewide average of 42 cases per day per 100,000 people. They are Hanover, with a rate of 59.6 and Hingham with a 46.7 rate. The lowest rate is in Halifax at 15.9 per 100,000 people.
In Thursday's daily report, the state health department said there were 2,561 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state's total for the pandemic to 1,722,244.
There were 696 people in the state's hospitals with COVID-19 on Thursday, a 14.5% drop from the 814 patients a week earlier. There were 80 patients with COVID-19 in intensive care units, up one from a week earlier, and 24 people on breathing equipment, down seven from the week before.
The state reported 24 new deaths Thursday, bringing the total number of Massachusetts deaths to 19,462. A total of 70 deaths were reported in the past week, seven less than the previous week.
The following is a list of the number of cases by community for the two weeks ending May 28, 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: 90 cases; 35.2 rate; 4,101 total
Braintree: 198 cases; 35.7 rate; 9,467 total
Carver: 29 cases; 16.9 rate; 2,331 total
Cohasset: 36 cases; 35 rate; 1,272 total
Duxbury: 66 cases; 31.2 rate; 2,727 total
Halifax: 17 cases; 15.9 rate; 1,552 total
Hanover: 120 cases; 59.6 rate; 4,404 total
Hanson: 59 cases; 39.2 rate; 2,375 total
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Hingham:157 cases; 46.7 rate; 4,688 total
Holbrook: 57 cases; 35.9 rate; 2,783 total
Hull: 55 cases; 40.1 rate, 1,495 total.
Kingston: 59 cases; 30.8 rate; 3,044 total.
Marshfield: 138 cases; 38 rate; 4,715 total
Milton: 141 cases; 35 rate; 6,274 total
Norwell: 55 cases; 36.7 rate; 2,266 total
Pembroke: 94 cases; 35.8 rate; 3,882 total
Plymouth: 274 cases; 31.2 rate; 13,923 total
Quincy: 563 cases; 39.6 rate; 20,192 total
Randolph: 201 cases; 41.7 rate; 10,189 total
Rockland: 88 cases; 34.7 rate; 4,504 total
Scituate: 91 cases; 35.9 rate; 3,147 total
Weymouth: 289 cases; 36.7 rate; 12,633 total
Whitman: 57 cases; 26.2 rate; 3,511 total
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: COVID-19 cases fall on South Shore in latest state report
