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Date: 3/17/2021
EASTHAMPTON – The Easthampton Health Department has recently introduced a new weekly dashboard that provides a snapshot of COVID-19 statistics in the city.
More specifically, the dashboard illustrates a seven-day daily average of cases per 100,000 residents, a seven-day positive test rate per 100,000 residents, a weekly case total, current active cases, total cases to date, total lives lost, the percentage of residents in the 01027 ZIP code who have partially received the vaccine, and the percentage of 01027 residents who have fully received the vaccine. The dashboard is updated every Friday.
“We’re trying to provide a timely snapshot for local residents, businesses, and policy makers to have the most up-to-date and relevant information for the local community,” said Amy Hardt, the public health nurse for Easthampton.
According to Hardt, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has been providing residents and businesses with a 14-day analysis of COVID-19 statistics throughout the pandemic. To acquire these statistics, the DPH generates a rated average per day for new cases, as well as a positive testing rate. The 14-day data for Easthampton is also included on the weekly dashboard to better align with the DPH reporting timeframe.
This particular data from the DPH is normally released every other Thursday evening, but the dashboard only shows the most up-to-date information from a couple days prior to that Thursday evening.
When Hardt was working as the public health nurse part-time back in December 2020, she started to notice that a COVID-19 surge was leading to quickly-changing data. One week in November there would be 16 cases in Easthampton, the next week there would be 30, and by the middle to end of December, the city would reach 75 cases in a week.
“We hit our peak in early January with 95 cases one week,” said Hardt. “In an environment like that where things are rapidly changing, a 14-day average that’s already a few days old is not as helpful as knowing what happened last week very locally.”
After still having around 30 cases a week in early February, Easthampton had 20 cases during the week of March 2 through March 9.
“When there’s widespread community transmission, we might make different choices,” said Hardt. “So the sooner we know that, the better.”
To gather the information for the city’s weekly dashboard, Hardt said she mainly uses the same sources that the state uses for their 14-day dashboard. The website that the DPH uses has links to raw data, which is updated on a day-to-day basis. Hardt monitors that data daily to see if it is stable. With the local public health department, Hardt also has access to the MAVEN Epidemiological Surveillance Database, which is where she actively tracks and traces current cases and their close contacts.
“I have access to only Easthampton data within that surveillance database,” said Hardt. “But that does allow me to see in real time what is being reported for our jurisdiction.”
The first weekly dashboard that was released on March 4 provided vaccination statistics for Hampshire County in general. On March 11, however, the state began releasing ZIP code vaccination data specifically.
“It’s [the dashboard] not really different than the one we’ve had all along,” said Hardt. “But I am adding an extra layer of significance to the message of stopping the transmission and slowing the spread.”
As of press time, Easthampton has 854 COVID-19 cases to date, a 1.03 percent seven-day positive test rate, and 24 active cases. 10.9 percent of 01027 residents are partially vaccinated, while 14.6 percent of 01027 residents are fully vaccinated.
“Everyone should still be thinking about social distancing,” said Hardt, who added that many of the transmission cases she hears about are occurring from very casual interactions indoors. “All it takes is one person to bring it home, and then you have an entire family getting COVID.”