Respiratory Illness: Guidance and Data

Last Content Update: 3 weeks ago

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Respiratory Viruses

Taking steps to protect yourself and others—particularly those at higher risk—is important during this time of year. Adults aged 65 and older and children younger than 2 years of age are considered at the highest risk.

Additionally, people with certain underlying conditions may be more likely to experience severe illness, including those with:

Chronic lung disease
Heart disease
Diabetes
Chronic kidney disease
Weakened immune systems
Pregnancy

Practice good hygiene, like washing your hands regularly and cleaning commonly touched surfaces.

Implement measures to ensure cleaner air in the places where you live and work.

Use precautions to prevent spread. Stay home and away from others.
Seek health care promptly for treatment if you have risk factors for severe illness; treatment may help lower your risk of severe illness.
Consider wearing a mask if you're feeling unwell, in crowded spaces, during times when illness is spreading in the community, or if you or someone close to you is at higher risk of severe illness.

Rapid Antigen Tests

When you are sick with a new respiratory virus, Rapid Antigen Tests continue to be one of the most important COVID and Flu mitigation strategies. Rapid Antigen Tests work with the current circulating variants. Testing when you have symptoms can be an important tool to reduce the chance of spreading respiratory illness. If you receive a positive result, it give you the opportunity to speak with your provider to evaluate whether you are a candidate for anti-virals such as paxlovid for COVID, or for treatment for the flu.

Respiratory Illness Data

To access respiratory viral information you may go to the following websites:

Massachusetts Viral Respiratory Illness: Reported by MDPH
Massachusetts Emergency Department Visits: Reported by the CDC
Weekly National Respiratory Illness Summary: Report on the CDC webpage

Wastewater COVID-19 Surveillance Data

Wastewater Viral Activity for Northampton:

As of 03/04/2026 the latest Northampton effective virus concentration is 360k copies/L.

Check here to access Massachusetts DPH municipalities wastewater data.

Check here to access the CDC national, regional and state data. What does wastewater surveillance show? Wastewater data can provide an early warning about increasing cases since virus will show up in wastewater several days, maybe even a week, before positive test numbers start to increase. Wastewater data can help us track trends in the number of people that have COVID-19 in a community. The amount of virus that a person has in their stool and the length of time that they have virus in their stool varies. Because of this, the amount of virus measured in wastewater does not tell us total number of cases in the area and does not tell us the amount of increase or decrease in cases in communities. However, if the amount of virus in wastewater increases or decreases over several time points, that information shows that cases are either increasing or decreasing in the community.