An average of one to two people die of COVID-19 every minute across America as the virus continues its deadly surge, Public Health Commissioner Dr. Monica Bharel said Thursday during a meeting of the Public Health Council.
Bharel said she wanted to bring attention to that statistic because she and other public health officials spend so much time looking at numbers and “sometimes we get numbed by them.”
She said the coronavirus remains a major threat to health and safety in Massachusetts and asked that Public Health Council members to help encourage residents to stay home as much as possible, avoid gatherings, wear a mask in public, and stay home when feeling ill.
“I just this morning heard about another family friend who was lost to COVID-19, so this virus remains devastating and deadly,” Bharel, who had COVID-19 and recovered in the spring, said Thursday.
With the impact of Thanksgiving gatherings starting to influence COVID-19 trends and more holidays on the calendar this month, Bharel said “things will likely get worse before they get better.”
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