Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday said initial efforts to track the contacts of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 has provided some good news: The average infected person has only had contact with two other people, a fraction of what state officials imagined.
Baker said initial estimates were that each infected person would have contact with about 10 other people. The lower average result indicates that social distancing efforts are succeeding across the commonwealth.
“That’s a very good sign,’’ he said in a press conference. “It means the stuff that we put in the place, the work that you have done to socially distance, limit your travel and limit the number of people you’ve come in contact with has had exactly the kind of impact on the rate of spread ... that we hoped it would.”
While Massachusetts is still in the middle of a surge of cases, the number of daily new cases has leveled off.
"We have, in fact, bent the curve," Baker said.
The state launched a project called the COVID-19 Community Tracing Collaborative earlier in April to slow the spread of the virus in partnership with Partners in Health. He said so far 5,000 people have been interviewed, including those who have tested positive and people they have contacted. Baker urged residents to pick up the phone if they received a call from the group.
As of Wednesday, there were 3,856 people hospitalized with COVID-19, he said, a number that has remained relatively flat over the last two weeks. He said 252 died from complication of the disease Wednesday, the largest daily number ever.
“Our hearts go out to everyone who has lost someone to this terrible virus,’’ he said.
