Levels of COVID-19 in the Boston area are remarkably low ahead of Thanksgiving this year, according to the region's latest wastewater data.
The virus typically ramps up this time of year, but the most recent update on the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority's COVID wastewater page shows that coronavirus levels have remained largely static over the past three weeks, even decreasing through much of the month.
The COVID levels are the lowest they've been in late November since 2020.
“I’m actually very pleasantly surprised to see that low level,” Dr. Sabrina Assoumou, an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine at Boston University, told the Boston Globe.
Residents are encouraged to stay up to date with the latest vaccines.
Assoumou told the Globe that several factors are likely behind the virus's slower spread so far this month, including a summer surge in infections that resulted in immunity for people who caught the virus; that the variants circulating aren't particularly different that have been around for months; and that the public is generally well protected from serious illness and death after four years of vaccinations and COVID infections.
It remains to be seen if this trend will carry us through the winter season, as the holidays bring more people together indoors.
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The Boston Public Health Commission said in a statement Monday that this is the time to get vaccinated for both COVID-19 and the flu, as well as for RSV if eligible.
“It’d be really helpful to get that extra boost to make sure you’re carried over for the entire season,” said Assoumou, who emphasized to the Globe that treatments for COVID, including Paxlovid, are effective.
