The death toll in New England grew to nine, as public health officials across the region reported increased COVID-19 testing has yielded nearly a thousand positives.
Massachusetts on Saturday night reported its second death, a woman in her 50s from Middlesex County. The state’s public health department said she had a pre-existing condition “predisposing her to more severe disease.”
Earlier in the day, Connecticut announced its fifth fatality from the disease. Two people in Vermont have also died.
On Friday night, a nursing home in Franklin County, Massachusetts, announced that four of its patients have tested positive. Buckley HealthCare Center in Greenfield said in a statement that one of the patients was being treated at a hospital.
“The Center had already taken steps to isolate the infected patients when symptoms occurred to prevent additional exposure,” said the statement, released by the nursing home’s owner, National HealthCare Corporation.
The statement said employees and other patients are being closely monitored for COVID-19.
It’s not clear how those four positive results fit into the most recent number released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which show two cases in Franklin County, an increase of one from Friday.
Overall, the state now has 525 reported cases, a jump of 112 from Friday. The vast majority are in the Boston area. The largest increase in western Massachusetts occurred in Hampden County, where cases went from three to nine.
Massachusetts is seeing fewer than 10% of tests come back positive. Officials said 5,277 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Massachusetts — 3,031 by the state public health lab and 2,246 by commercial and other labs — since February 28.
With testing capacity continuing to grow, Baker issued a cautionary note in his daily briefing,
"I want to remind folks that as the testing numbers go up and the criteria by which you can be tested expands, we certainly expect that we'll see an increase in the number of positive test cases as well,” the governor said.
Across New England, the total number of people testing positive for the disease has grown to 998.
On Saturday, Connecticut’s reported cases increased to 223, from 194 the day before. Maine now has 70 cases, 14 more than state officials announced Friday.
At 65 cases, New Hampshire saw an increase of 10 from the day before. Rhode Island reported 12 new positive tests, adding up to 66. Vermont saw a sizeable jump, going from 29 to 49.
Those numbers include "presumptive positive cases" identified by state and private labs, as well as cases confirmed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Massachusetts, Army Corps Explore Medical Capacity Expansion
Governor Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh had "very productive" conversations Saturday with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers around identifying, retrofitting and using college dorms, closed nursing homes and other facilities as extra medical treatment capacity as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Though the state has already taken drastic steps to slow the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus by limiting social interaction, the government and the health care sector are working to ensure that hospitals and clinics will be able to handle the surge of COVID-19 patients that is expected to accompany a significant increase in testing for the respiratory illness.
The governor said Saturday afternoon that the state's Coronavirus Command Center, helmed by Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders, has been talking to hospitals to "scenario plan" for an influx of COVID-19 patients, and will now work to pick some sites in Massachusetts that the Army Corps might be able to convert. It would be a few weeks before the Corps would have any such site ready, he said.
"We got a sense for the kind of work that they can do here in the commonwealth and identified — along with several other folks, including people from the private sector — facilities that could possibly be either converted or modified to provide additional medical care capacity as we ramp up to deal with this virus," Baker said.
The governor said some colleges have already expressed a willingness to make dorms available for medical use. The biggest issues, he said, are ensuring that the sites have adequate electricity and water supplies for medical operations. Baker said the Army Corps on Saturday essentially gave the state a "cookbook" that it can use to select sites it wants the Corps to inspect physically.
"This is obviously a mission that our National Guard could assist with as well," he said.
The governor recently activated the Guard to help with "logistical support and other assistance" in the state's coronavirus response.
NEPR’s Sam Hudzik contributed to this report, which includes information from VPR, WNPR and State House News Service.
