Provincetown Coronavirus Cluster Rises To 430 Cases

PROVINCETOWN, MA — The number of coronavirus cases linked to a cluster in Provincetown rose to 430 on Friday, health officials said. Of those, 342 are Massachusetts residents, 153 of whom live in Provincetown.

Seventy-one percent of the cases among Massachusetts residents were found to be symptomatic, with 69 percent of the affected people fully vaccinated. The symptoms have predominantly been mild, except for two in-state hospitalizations and one hospitalization outside of Massachusetts.

Genetic testing is being done at the state Public Health Laboratory to determine whether a variant of concern is associated with the cluster. Provincetown will also begin daily testing of wastewater, which officials said is a valuable surveillance tool for detecting the coronavirus and was done in the community up until the spring.

The Board of Health said the number of cases is expected to rise as more people get tested. Test positivity rates have improved since surveillance of the Provincetown cluster began, falling from 15 percent to 9 percent. A test positivity rate of under 5 percent is considered progress towards cluster containment, while a testing positivity rate below 1 percent is considered fully contained.