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Massachusetts cities and towns asked to no longer issue positive results on COVID-19 tests
If you are interested in knowing how many cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in a particular Massachusetts city or town, you are now out of luck.
Fall River’s Director of Health and Human Services, Tess Curran, stated in an 11:00 a.m. press conference at Government Center that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has directed cities and towns to no longer release new case count numbers of COVID-19.
The most detailed data that will be available moving forward is the total positive cases per county. As of today, Bristol County has 129 confirmed cases of this particular virus strain. Bristol County consists of Acushnet, Attleboro, Berkley, Dartmouth, Dighton, Easton, Fairhaven, Fall River, Freetown, Mansfield, New Bedford, North Attleborough, Norton, Raynham, Rehoboth, Seekonk, Somerset, Swansea, Taunton, and Westport.
As of the last update given by the City of Fall River on Thursday, the city had 3 confirmed positive cases.
Marylou Sudders, the Secretary of Health and Human Services for Massachusetts, stated today in a press conference that the state is trying to balance public health and individual privacy and wants to avoid the possibility of people getting bullied. She stated that individuals that had tested positive had previously been outed on Facebook and persecuted.
Massachusetts Department of Health permits cities, towns to share case counts
Nancy Estrella
March 27, 2020 at 6:56 pm
Ms. Sudders, this is ridiculous, the privacy is there because we are not asking for names or any personal details. We are asking for numbers just like there are numbers for everything else. I myself and speak on behalf of a lot of people who have low immune systems, me being one with a very low immune system due to a double organ transplant being #497 out of 512 in the whole united states deserves to know. Needs to know so do others. Please DO NOT keep that information from the public.
Carol
March 28, 2020 at 6:00 am
We only want numbers! Not names!
Deborah
March 28, 2020 at 10:39 am
Don’t you think this is Charlie Baker’s idea?! Another example of his willingness to put our health and safety at risk for the sake of the economy! He’s keeping us in the dark so he can require people to work by not ordering a lockdown! He needs to go now!!
m
March 28, 2020 at 7:44 pm
I don’t think that is not true and I wish he would enter a lock down for 2 weeks including no outsiders
Hal
March 29, 2020 at 2:25 am
I want numbers and locations they may have been. I don’t want to know who these people are or their home address. I just want to know general information about where they’ve been. This way these stores can close their doors and decontaminate and let the public know.