COVID-19 pandemic is better, but not over, 2 years in

BOSTON — As the nation marks the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, infections, hospitalizations and deaths are declining in Massachusetts and elsewhere, but but medical experts say the threat isn’t over yet.

Margaret Cooke, commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, gave an optimistic assessment of the current data on COVID-19 to members of the state’s Public Health Council on Wednesday.

“With vaccines and boosters and new COVID-19 therapeutic treatments, we are in a much better place than we were at this time last year,” she said. “Residents are able to gather more safely with family and friends. Students are in classrooms where they should be, and more people are returning to their workplaces.”

As of Thursday, the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases was 537, a 65% decrease since early February, according to DPH data. Likewise, COVID-19 hospitalizations have decreased by more than 70% during the same period. Deaths, which often trail behind rises in hospitalizations, are also declining.

In New Hampshire, new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are also continuing to decline with “active cases” falling below 1,000 this week for the first time since mid-August, public health officials say.

While the data is encouraging, medical experts warn the pandemic is far from over and say Americans need to be vigilant about a possible resurgence of the virus.

“It’s so tempting to just try to forget about it, and move on, but we can’t do that,” said Dr. Howard Koh, a public health expert and professor at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School for Public Health. “All that will do is make us vulnerable to the next threat. We need to remain vigilant.”

He pointed out that a year ago officials were close to declaring the pandemic over, when the virus mutated into a pair of highly-contagious strains that quickly spread across the country.

“The virus lives to mutate and mutates to live,” Koh said. “So there’s always going to be the threat of a resurgence.”

Koh, a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said one lesson learned during the pandemic is the need to strengthen local public health systems to improve the state’s response to future COVID-19 outbreaks, as well as other viral infections, natural disasters and calamities.

“We’ve always been a step behind, not ahead, of this virus,” he said. “We need to take this opportunity to rebuild our local public health systems, particularly when it comes to our exhausted health care workforce. We just can’t forget about this and move on. It has got to be our highest priority.”

Nearly 77% of Massachusetts residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — one of the highest levels in the nation. But public health officials say the vaccination rates were uneven in some communities, particularly among minorities. They say more needs to be done to improve equity in the vaccination system.

To date, Massachusetts has reported more than 1.5 million COVID-19 infections since the outbreak began, and lost nearly 20,000 lives to the virus.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the improving public health metrics mean that Americans can begin to ease up on preventative measures such as mask wearing, but is cautioning that people shouldn’t “shred” those masks just yet.

“I would say put your masks in a drawer, anticipate you may need them again and hope that we don’t,” Walensky told NBC News.

Globally, a number of impoverished countries are still struggling with infections and hospitalizations and a lack of access to the COVID-19 vaccines.

World Health Organization Director Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus issued a statement this week saying despite reported cases and deaths declining internationally “the pandemic is far from over.” He said it would be “a grave mistake” for world leaders to think we have seen the end of COVID-19.

“The virus continues to evolve, and we continue to face major obstacles in distributing vaccines, tests and treatments everywhere they are needed,” he said.

More than 6 million people have died worldwide as a result of the pandemic, the WHO says.

Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at [email protected].