FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — The white tents, the workers dressed in disposable blues -- it might seem like an apparition from the pandemic past, but testing for Covid-19 is alive and well and thriving in Framingham. In fact, at its Franklin Street drive-through location, Project Beacon is fully booked.
“Today I decided to take a test because I had a little bit of a runny nose,” said Sandra Nygren, who actually tries to get tested weekly -- just because. “I think it’s good to just make sure you run in and get a test. Because it’s so easy. Think of others and hopefully keep it safe.”
A mother and her teen son had a definite reason to be there.
“He was in contact with a friend who tested positive Tuesday,” Mom said. “He has no symptoms whatsoever and he’ll be free and clear if he’s negative eight days from contact.”
Gone are the interminable lines from around the holidays -- and with them, the numbers of those getting tested in Massachusetts has fallen, overall, too.
“Towards Thanksgiving and Christmas we went up to almost 1,500 patients per day for testing,” said Michelle Mullen, a nurse practitioner at UMass Memorial Medical Center. “Our numbers started going down to about 800 mid-January. And then at the end of January about 600.”
Since then, the UMass testing site has dwindled to, on some days, half that number.
Drop-offs at local testing sites have impacted overall state numbers. The first 16 days of January and February, the state Department of Public Health reported 1.3 and 1.48 million tests performed statewide. The first 16 days in March, the number was down slightly, to 1.29 million tests.
Mullen said that may have to do, in part with excitement over vaccine availability in Worcester County, and the vigorous efforts that have been made to get residents immunized.
And it could be something else.
“It could be because people are becoming, you know, complacent,” Mullen said. They might not think that testing is really important anymore.”
That complacency and disregard is coming at a time when state Covid numbers are heading back in the wrong direction. For a week now, the average daily positive test rate has risen, most recently to 1.92 percent. That’s still well below January’s high of 8+ percent, but a troubling development, as more contagious variants pop up locally.
“It is more important than ever now that we keep a close eye on the data,” said Merrie Najimy, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
The first week in April, Massachusetts schools are scheduled to open fully.
“If there is an uptick in numbers and a new variant we have to watch those carefully so we know how to respond and adapt in order to keep our students, their parents and our educators safe,” Najimy said.
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