The Final COVID-19 Weekly Update. Report For The Week Of March 15, 2023

by Art and Maura Keene

Dear Reader,
This will be the last week that we post the COVID-19 weekly update. With the considerable curtailment of testing and data reporting, it has become a lot harder to track COVID trends in any kind of fine-grained and meaningful way. The federal and state governments have mostly lost interest and have dismantled much of the infrastructure that was set up to address the pandemic.

Make no mistake, the pandemic is still with us as are the persistent and as yet, poorly understood impacts of Long COVID. Even with meager reporting and tracking, public health officials estimate that there are still over 2000 Americans dying each week from COVID-19. And there are still roughly a quarter of a million new cases diagnosed in the US each week and nearly a million new cases recorded globally each week. It is still worth paying attention to the extent that we are able. (note: the Amherst Department of Health continues to report local COVID case numbers.

In place of the weekly report, we will compile, from time to time, news reports on COVID and share them in our occasional feature, “From Other Sources”.

As Of Monday, May 24, 2021 The Indy’s COVID-19 Daily Update became the COVID-19 Weekly Update. As of Wednesday July 14 , 2021 the Weekly Update moved to Wednesdays. Each Wednesday we will post the latest confirmed case counts for Coronavirus (COVID-19) for Massachusetts, for the nation and for the globe.

Making Sense of the Numbers
Authorities caution that the confirmed case count and death count is a substantial underestimate of the actual number of cases and deaths. This underestimate is thought to be especially extreme under current conditions where the availability of testing and tracking have been greatly reduced and where reporting of new cases to public health officials has all but stopped. Currently the only reliable indicators on the state of COVID infections seem to be hospitalization rates and wastewater measurements. It is also not clear whether deaths due to post-COVID complications are incorporated into COVID mortality statistics but it would appear that they mostly are not. Nonetheless, until this week the numbers show over 3000 Americans identified as COVID deaths each week, suggesting that the the virus and the pandemic are still very much with us. Globally, there is currently a large COVID surge in China but China has stopped reporting daily COVID counts and hence that outbreak is not reflected in the global data.

Archives
The Indy began posting COVID-19 Daily Update on March 18, 2020. Here are links to archives of previous months’ posts. March, April , May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March 21, April 21, May 21, June 21, July 21, August 21, September 21, October 21, November 21, December 21, January 22, February 22, March 2022, April 2022, May 2022, June 2022, July 2022, August 2022, September 2022, October 2022, November 2022,
December 2022, January 2023, February 2023
Numbers in parentheses indicate increase or decrease in count from previous Wednesday.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY, March 15, 2023 as of 8 AM.
Massachusetts: As of 9/26/22, the New York Times COVID tracker and COVID ActNow no longer report raw case counts for states and instead report counts/100,000, as well as hospital admission rates and vaccination rates. These are better indicators of the state of the pandemic than raw counts, especially since reporting of cases has become so unreliable, and we’ll be reporting them henceforth. Nonetheless, it’s useful to know that as of 9/21/22 there had been 2,030,335 cases of COIVD recorded in Massachusetts and 21, 588 deaths.

MA newly reported cases /100k : 49.0 (last week: 59.4). Hospitalizations/ 100k: 6.1 (- 3) Deaths/100,000.: <1 (NC) Fully Vaccinated: 84.3 (NC), with booster: 47.8% (+.1), bivalent booster 29.8%. (+.1). Community risk level: low (last week, low)

Amherst: Data as of 2/28/23. No new data yet for the week of 3/8/23. Numbers in parentheses reflect changes over last two weeks. Total Confirmed Cases in Amherst: 10,655 (+17). Currently Active : 3 (-2). 14 day incidence average 2.9 /100,000 (last week, 3.3). Full wastewater surveillance reports & archives can be found here.

Amherst Public Schools:
COVID counts from January 1, 2022 – June 18, 2022: 999
COVID counts beginning August 2022: August 22: 18, September 22: 146, October 22: 81 , November 22: 46, December 22: 63, January 23: 85, February 23: 64, March 23: 26
Running Total For AY 22-23: 529

UMass: UMass relaunched its COVID dashboard on Sept 1, 2022 after a hiatus since May 10, 2022
Cumulative Positive Cases Beginning September 1, 2021 – May 10, 2022. – 4607.
Cumulative Positive Cases From September 1 2022, – March 4, 2023 – 1655
New Positive Cases for the week of Feb 26-March 4
Sources for other Amherst Area Schools and Colleges

USA And The World
Source: Worldometers
Confirmed Cases in USA – 105,667,487 (+225,538)
Confirmed Deaths USA –1,149,276 (+2059)
Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 681,844,024 (+889,279)
Deaths: 6,813,727 (+6,643)
Source: Worldometers see also: Johns
Hopkins University

COVID NEWS
Massachusetts Will End COVID Emergency On May 11
(WGBH)
Healy Will End COVID Vaccination Mandate For State Workers
(WGBY)
Do COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Still Make Sense?
(Science)
Advocates Press For COVID Day Of Remembrance As Pandemic Continues
(Boston.com)
COVID Worsened A Health Crisis Among Pregnant Women
(New York TImes)
Pfizer Bivalent Booster Gets Nod For Infants and Toddlers
(Bloomberg)
FDA Says Data Show Pfizer’s COVID Treatment Paxlovid Is Effective In High-risk Adults
(CNBC)
No, That New Study Doesn’t Show That Masks Are Useless
(Yale Insights)
Five Things We’ve Learned Form COVID In Three Years
(Scientific American)
City With World’s Most Expensive Housing Ponders What To Do With 40,000 Empty Quarantine Units
(CNN)
The Knowns and Unknowns Of Long COVID Explained
(Vox)
Republicans Push Lab Leak Theory For COVID’s Origins But Lack Smoking Gun
(New York Times)
New Data Links COVID-19 Origins To Raccoon Dogs At Wuhan Market
(The Guardian)
The Strongest Evidence Yet That An Animal Started The Pandemic
(The Atlantic)

UPDATE WEDNESDAY, March 8, 2023 as of 8 AM.
Massachusetts: As of 9/26/22, the New York Times COVID tracker and COVID ActNow no longer report raw case counts for states and instead report counts/100,000, as well as hospital admission rates and vaccination rates. These are better indicators of the state of the pandemic than raw counts, especially since reporting of cases has become so unreliable, and we’ll be reporting them henceforth. Nonetheless, it’s useful to know that as of 9/21/22 there had been 2,030,335 cases of COIVD recorded in Massachusetts and 21, 588 deaths.

MA newly reported cases /100k : 59.4 (last week: 73.7). Hospitalizations/ 100k: 9.1 (- 1.3) Deaths/100,000.: <1 (NC) Fully Vaccinated: 84.3 (NC), with booster: 47.7% (NC), bivalent booster 29.7%. (+.2). Community risk level: low (last week, medium)

Amherst: Data as of 2/28/23. No new data yet for the week of 3/8/23. Numbers in parentheses reflect changes over last two weeks. Total Confirmed Cases in Amherst: 10,638 (+21). Currently Active : 5 (-3). 14 day incidence average 3.3 /100,000 (last week, 2.9). Full wastewater surveillance reports & archives can be found here.

Amherst Public Schools:
COVID counts from January 1, 2022 – June 18, 2022: 999
COVID counts beginning August 2022: August 22: 18, September 22: 146, October 22: 81 , November 22: 46, December 22: 63, January 23: 85, February 23: 64, March 23: 13
Running Total For AY 22-23: 516

Sources for other Amherst Area Schools and Colleges

USA And The World
Source: Worldometers
Confirmed Cases in USA – 105,441,949 (+156,602)
Confirmed Deaths USA –1,147,217 (+1556)
Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 680,944,745 (+887,404)
Deaths: 6,807,084 (+6,513)
Source: Worldometers see also: Johns
Hopkins University

COVID NEWS
HCC, Other Colleges To Drop COVID Vaccine Requirement After Spring Semester
(Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Massachusetts To Close Free COVID Testing Sites Citing Decline In Demand
(WBUR)
COVID Vaccine Prices Could Soon Quadruple
(NPR)
Hearings On COVID’s Origins Promises Politics Mixed With Substance
(New York Times)
Available Evidence Still Points To COVID Originating From Wet Market Spillover
(Washington Post)
We Don’t Need To Know How This Pandemic Started To Prevent The Next One
(Vox)
Why Are We Still Arguing About Masks?
(The Atlantic)
Some Parents Hid Kids’ COVID Status Contributing To Spread Of Disease
(Washington Post)
JAMA Study Shows One In Four Parents Hid Kids’ COVID Status
(Axios)
Long COVID Patients More Likely To Have Long-term Gastrointesitnal Problems
(New York Times)

UPDATE WEDNESDAY, March 1, 2023 as of 8 AM.
Massachusetts: As of 9/26/22, the New York Times COVID tracker and COVID ActNow no longer report raw case counts for states and instead report counts/100,000, as well as hospital admission rates and vaccination rates. These are better indicators of the state of the pandemic than raw counts, especially since reporting of cases has become so unreliable, and we’ll be reporting them henceforth. Nonetheless, it’s useful to know that as of 9/21/22 there had been 2,030,335 cases of COIVD recorded in Massachusetts and 21, 588 deaths.

MA newly reported cases /100k : 73.7 (last week: 79.5). Hospitalizations/ 100k: 10.4 (-.7) . Deaths/100,000.: <1 (NC) Fully Vaccinated: 84.3 (NC), with booster: 47.7% (+.1), bivalent booster 29.5%. (+.1). Community risk level: Medium (last week, Medium)

Amherst: Data as of 2/28/23. Numbers in parentheses reflect changes over last two weeks. Total Confirmed Cases in Amherst: 10,638 (+21). Currently Active : 5 (-3). 14 day incidence average 3.3 /100,000 (last week, 2.9). Full wastewater surveillance reports & archives can be found here.

Amherst Public Schools:
COVID counts from January 1, 2022 – June 18, 2022: 999
COVID counts beginning August 2022: August 22: 18, September 22: 146, October 22: 81 , November 22: 46, December 22: 63, January 23: 85, February 23: 64
Running Total For AY 22-23: 503

Sources for other Amherst Area Schools and Colleges

USA And The World
Source: Worldometers
Confirmed Cases in USA – 105,285,347 (+482,196)
Confirmed Deaths USA –1,145,661 (+5260)
Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 680,057,341 (+1,036,278)
Deaths: 6,800,571 (+7,582)
Source: Worldometers see also: Johns
Hopkins University

COVID NEWS
Massachusetts To Close All Stop The Spread COVID Testing Sites
(Spectrum 1 News)
FBI Director Says COVID Lab Leak Most Likely
(BBC)
What Does The Science Say About The Resurrected Lab Leak Theory?
(NPR)
The Lab Leak Theory Will Haunt Us Forever
(The Atlantic)
No One Really Knows How Much COVID Is Silently Spreading Again
(The Atlantic)
People Aren’t Getting The COVID Booster. Employers Can Change That
(San Francisco Chronicle)
Pfizer /BioNTech Seeks Approval Of Updated COVID Booster For Kids
(Reuters)
Study Shows COVID-19 Rates Were Likely Forty-times Higher Than CDC Estimates During BA.4/BA.5 Dominant Period In The U.S.
(News Medical)
Massive Surge In Hospitalizations Of Children Due To COVID In Second Year Of Pandemic
(CTV News)
The Pandemic At Three. Who Got It Right?
(The New Yorker)
Pandemic Narratives And The Historian
(LA Review Of Books)

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Tags: COVID-19, public health

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