Harwich Town Hall
HARWICH – At a recent Harwich Selectmen meeting, Harwich Health Director Meggan Eldredge gave an update on the rising number of cases in the town and community at large as the state wrestles with the second wave of the coronavirus.
“We are seeing an increase in the numbers not just from a trigger event or cluster event. We’re seeing them in different areas, different reasons for positives,” said Eldredge.
In Harwich specifically, Eldredge said that household transmission is the primary means of infection.
Thousands of cases across the state are from household contacts, said Eldredge, rather than large group events.
She said that many cases are due to asymptomatic people catching the virus in one place and then spreading it in smaller household gatherings later.
“Household transmission is the major source of COVID right now in Massachusetts,” said Eldredge.
Other areas that health officials are seeing clusters in include some daycare providers and other workplaces, but few in office spaces specifically.
As for the virus spreading between people out dining, Eldredge said that cases develop more around food courts than restaurants.
Eldredge also said that though cases are rising statewide, there is no community spread in the town at this time.
She said that transmissions are identifiable and that health officials are aware from where cases are spreading.
Eldredge said that no positives were discovered to be linked to political rallies or other forms of rallies that the public has gathered for lately, which she says is mostly owing to the outside nature of the events.
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