Template talk:COVID-19 pandemic data/United States/Massachusetts medical cases chart

New togglesbar

Should we add a togglesbar when we get into April such as what they did the Medical cases chart for California: [[1]]? Should we add a togglesbar when April starts?--Qwerty325 (talk) 12:41, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Recoveries

Why did you take off Recoveries? That’s so mean! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:197:c181:b70:3168:2136:54cb:8d67 (talk) 11:02, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

@2601:197:c181:b70:3168:2136:54cb:8d67: Do you have a reliable source for the number of recoveries in Massachusetts that we could use on this chart? The number of people released from quarantine is not the same as the number of recoveries, since many of those people never had the virus in the first place. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 14:33, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

The problem with knowing the number of recoveries, as Governor Charlie Baker stated in April, is because infected people are not legally required to notify the state government when they have recovered, so knowing the number of recoveries is impossible. A good estimate would be the number of total cases exactly 14 days ago minus the number of new deaths, but that is only an estimate, and not all people take exactly 14 days to recover. As of April 23, a good estimate for recovered would be 18941-(2360-503) = 17084, but that is probably not the exact number. I suppose including that in the graph, Ahecht, however, would be helpful to the viewer in knowing an approximation of the number of active cases. Qwerty325 (talk) 14:47, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

@Qwerty325: While the maximum incubation period is 14 days, that's not the maximum recovery time. Someone could take 14 days to show symptoms, and then be sick for 2-8 weeks after that, meaning we'd have to look back 10 weeks. (see https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf: Among patients who have died, the time from symptom onset to outcome ranges from 2-8 weeks). That would put us back in mid-February, when there was only 1 reported case. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 15:17, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

@Ahecht: How does that make sense though? If we looked back 10 weeks then how is there 99K recoveries in the United States alone? In mid-February, America had less than 100 cases of the virus. It couldn't be 99K recoveries if that was true. And your reference states that of the patients who died, they showed symptoms for 2-8 weeks before death. But normally, you show symptoms for about 14 days. --Qwerty325 (talk) 01:23, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

@Qwerty325: That's kind of the point. Trying to estimate recoveries based on tested cases and deaths doesn't make sense. And from that source I gave earlier, 14 days is only for mild cases: the median time from onset to clinical recovery for mild cases is approximately 2 weeks and is 3-6 weeks for patients with severe or critical disease.. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 02:08, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

@Ahecht: Massachusetts started reporting recoveries now. The current number is 78,108. (See pg. 22 [2]) I added this to the medical cases chart but now it looks unusual, as the recoveries were suddenly brought in. Is there a better way to add the recoveries or should we leave it like this? --Qwerty325 (talk) 17:18, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

I think it looks fine as-is. If you're concerned about the big jump you could change the label to something like "recoveries reported", but I don't think it's necessary. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 17:22, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

Probable cases

@GorillaWarfare: There's a way to find probable and confirmed cases cases. On page 14 of the daily report, there is the combined total of confirmed and probable cases. Subtract the confirmed cases (on page 1) from the total cases (on page 14) to get probable cases. Then use the total number of cases as used before. Hope this helps! --Qwerty325 (talk) 18:11, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

Updated Massachusetts dashboard explanation

@GorillaWarfare: The Massachusetts dashboard has been updated.

• The number of recoveries is now reported in the daily report. To find this number, first sum the active cases (pg. 2) and confirmed deaths (pg. 20). Then subtract this number from the confirmed cases (pg. 6).
• The confirmed cases are now on pg. 6 and the confirmed deaths are on pg. 20.
• The probable cases and deaths are now on pg. 11.
• The total number of cases is found from the sum of confirmed and probable cases; the total number of deaths is on pg. 21.
• County data is now found on pg. 25.
• Molecular tests with results are no longer reported, but total molecular tests conducted are on pg. 9.
• Antibody tests are no longer reported, but antigen tests are on pg. 12.

Everything else seems to be the same. Hope this helps! Qwerty325 (talk) 23:43, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

@Qwerty325: Thanks! The formatting change broke my script so I'll have to patch it up tonight. Did you happen to see if cumulative hospitalizations are available anywhere? I couldn't find them, but it wouldn't be the first time you found something I couldn't in that report. GorillaWarfare (talk) 00:08, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

@GorillaWarfare: No, all I found was the current hospitalizations on pg. 15; it seems unfortunately the state has stopped reporting the cumulative hospitalizations. Qwerty325 (talk) 00:18, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

Seems that way to me too. GorillaWarfare (talk) 00:23, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

@GorillaWarfare: I found the cumulative hospitalizations. It is reported on pg. 49 of the weekly report. Qwerty325 (talk) 16:56, 8 November 2020 (UTC)

Ooh, nice! I'll start updating that on a weekly cadence, then. GorillaWarfare (talk) 17:43, 8 November 2020 (UTC)