DPH revises COVID-19 Daily Dashboard

The Department of Public Health yesterday announced revisions to its COVID-19 Daily Dashboard intended to help the public more easily access the growing amount of information for Massachusetts.

A key new data point presented in the dashboard is “case growth by age group.” The Commonwealth is currently seeing a larger proportion of cases in younger people compared to earlier in the pandemic.

The dashboard now includes the average turnaround time for COVID-19 test results to be reported to the DPH, so contact tracing can begin. The dashboard also now reports the impact of college and university testing, to clarify how this testing impacts the Commonwealth’s overall positivity rate and case numbers.

The DPH reports that the updated dashboard provides a more granular look into the daily positivity rate as well. Since August, the Commonwealth’s universities have been conducting at least 25,000 daily tests of students, faculty and staff. While this testing has helped to control the spread of COVID on college campuses, it has also impacted the overall positivity rate.

The dashboard now includes three positivity rates: the overall state positivity rate, the positivity rate on college campuses, and the statewide positivity rate excluding on-campus testing.

Many existing data points, including testing, deaths and hospitalization rates, have been reorganized to report on current numbers, trends over the past six weeks, and trends going back to March.

The revised dashboard will continue to provide information about the current and cumulative impact of the pandemic in Massachusetts, reflecting the metrics that are most useful to track on a daily basis, according to the DPH.

The DPH produces one of the most comprehensive public data reports on COVID-19 in the nation and includes detailed municipal-level, college and university, contact tracing, long-term care facilities, and, most recently, cluster data.

The dashboard will be posted each day at 5 p.m.

The Daily Dashboard, Weekly Public Health Report, raw data feeds, and other COVID-19 data and information can be found at www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-response-reporting.

The DPH is preparing to launch an interactive digital dashboard early next year.