![]() The study said that 74% of reported cases from the Provincetown outbreak were among fully vaccinated individuals, most of whom - 79% - were symptomatic.īut most of the symptoms were mild, with few people requiring hospitalization. While the town’s high rate of vaccination did not prevent the outbreak, it did lessen the severity of disease symptoms, Harik said. The positivity rate for the most recent two-week period now stands at 2.07%. The testing positivity rate reached 15.1% on July 15. Chan School of Public Health and the state Department of Public Health, which sponsored a free mobile testing unit in Provincetown through Labor Day. Study contributors also included the Harvard T.H. The genomes in the dominant cluster were from other states, “suggesting that this lineage likely emerged outside Massachusetts and was introduced into Massachusetts just prior to amplification by the outbreak,” the study said. ![]() He said he wonders if a few unvaccinated people caused the outbreak. This was not a large number of COVID positive people coming to town," Cyr said. "My read is that this is not a ton of people. "The cluster was likely amplified by multiple events that were attended by large groups of people in a short space of time." "We weren't able to identify any single event linked to cases involved in the cluster," Siddle said in an email. "We weren't able to identify any single event linked to cases involved in the cluster," said Katherine Siddle, a Broad Institute research scientist and one of the co-lead authors on the preprint. The Fourth of July weekend saw Provincetown’s bars, restaurants, dance halls and indoor and outdoor venues packed with visitors from across the country.Īnalysis in the study found more than 40 sources of delta variant among the 467 individuals whose genomic and epidemiological data were analyzed - with one source, whether an individual or small group - causing 83% of the infections studied. Outbreak likely emerged due to out-of-state visitors Instead, genomic and epidemiological data point to “one individual affecting others at multiple locations, or several individuals with the same virus … transmitting independently,” said the report, which received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study said there is no evidence that a single exposure site caused a super spreader event. "Within a week we offered large-scale testing." "It was a very effective early alert system," Cyr said. "The data also confirm for those people who are vaccinated COVID-19 is a much different virus than for those who are unvaccinated."Ĭyr also credited Outer Cape Health Services for alerting public health officials and political leaders about an increased number of patients with respiratory symptoms. "Provincetown's response to the cluster truly was effective," said state Sen. 31, when it was downgraded to an advisory. We had people calling from out of town and self-reporting.”Ĭontainment efforts included Provincetown municipal officials putting an indoor masking mandate into effect July 25 until Aug. The majority of patients were very cooperative. ![]() “Everybody worked really hard to track people down. “We wanted people to stay home,” Arvidson said. The Cape Cod AIDS Support Group delivered food and thermometers and picked up prescriptions. Provincetown residents and visitors who were still in town were informed of isolation protocols and also given a list of resources that could help them isolate, Arvidson said. “The basic mitigation stuff we’ve been talking about all along really worked.” “It was really good old-fashioned shoe leather public health work that prevented this from becoming a super spreader event,” said Vaira Harik, deputy director of Barnstable County’s department of human services. ![]() ![]() A preprint report by contributors including the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard attributed the containment to “high rates of vaccination and the swift public health response,” including mobile testing, an indoor masking mandate and extensive outreach campaign.īarnstable County officials, who are listed as contributors on the report, said contact tracing by county public health nurse Deirdre Arvidson and her associate Theresa Covell also played a role. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |