BOH: Omicron surge stronger than data suggests

COVID infection rates soared to unprecedented levels in Canton during the first two weeks of 2022 in what could well end up being the peak of the winter surge. Still, the official numbers only tell part of the story of Omicron’s impact locally, according to town health officials.

“Unfortunately, the large numbers that we’ve seen don’t even include [positive results from] home test kits,” noted Barbara Reardon, Canton’s director of public health, during last Thursday’s Board of Health meeting. “So that’s staggering to think we’ve had such a rise in cases and it doesn’t even reflect the home kits.”

While experts say the antigen rapid tests — which have become something of a household staple in recent weeks — remain a useful tool for identifying COVID infections, Reardon said there is simply no mechanism in place to verify those results and include them in the public data. For this reason, she said, residents who test positive at home do not need to report their results to the town or any other agency, although they should still make an effort to notify close contacts.

Public Health Nurse James Goodrich added that even the positive results from rapid tests administered directly by the BOH or any other health facility are excluded from the case counts put out by the state. Instead, they are placed in the “probable” category, while only the positive results from a PCR test — considered the “gold standard” for diagnosing COVID — make it into the final case count.

Despite this restrictive definition, Goodrich said the town of Canton still managed to shatter its previous pandemic highs with 823 PCR-confirmed cases seen in the first 11 days of January. This was more than 3.5 times the total from the same period a year earlier (231), which marked the peak of the previous winter surge.

Goodrich said the biggest jump occurred among 5-11 year olds, which produced 152 PCR-confirmed positives during the first 11 days of the new year, with high numbers also seen among 30-39 year olds.

“Omicron has definitely shown itself here in Canton,” he concluded.

On a more encouraging note, the statewide seven-day average of confirmed cases has been on a downswing …

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Posted by Jay Turner on Jan 20 2022. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.