The City of Newton reported its lowest number of positive cases of COVID-19 on Thursday since the start of the Omicron surge. The city reported only 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the one week period between Feb. 24 and March 2, according to the city’s dashboard.
Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller wrote in a newsletter update on Thursday that almost 75 percent of cases in the city between Feb. 13 and 26 came from one of Newton’s institutions of higher education.
“The COVID-19 data is all good,” Fuller wrote. “While it’s too early to say definitively, it suggests the school vacation week when many Newtonians traveled did not cause a spike in COVID-19 cases in Newton.”
Middlesex County, in which Newton resides, is now considered a low COVID-19 community level, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC still encourages residents to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and get tested if they are symptomatic.
The daily incident rate in the city, measuring the number of positive cases per a population of 100,000, also fell to its lowest numbers since before the December holidays. The city reported a daily incident rate of 34.9 over the last week, according to Fuller, compared to a rate of 25.3 reported for Dec. 11.
There were no current ICU hospitalizations at Newton-Wellesley Hospital due to COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to Fuller’s update, and there were only two COVID-19 hospitalizations on Tuesday.
Newton Public Schools did not report COVID-19 data from Feb. 21 to 25, as students were on Winter Vacation.
The Newton School Committee will vote next week on removing mask mandates in its schools. The city rescinded its mask mandate on Feb. 18.
For the third week in a row, the city reported no COVID-19 deaths.
“Continuing the good news, no one in Newton died with COVID-19 this week,” she wrote.
Featured Image by Nicole Vagra / Heights Editor
