State reports more coronavirus cases from that Biogen conference; tells health insurers to waive patient fees for Covid-19 testing and treatment

The state Department of Public Health reported five new Covid-19 cases in Massachusetts today - three of them apparently contracted at a meeting of Biogen employees at the Marriott Long Wharf last week.

Separately, the state Division of Insurance yesterday issued guidance to the state's health insurers on Covid-19 that calls on them to offer diagnostic tests to people with possible symptoms at no cost - and to waive any co-payments or other patient fees for treatment. The memo also calls for insurers to waive out-of-network fees for patients who seek emergency care at a hospital or health center not part of their insurance networks and to waive fees for counseling and, when they become available, vaccinations.

The newly reported cases raise the total number of Massachusetts Covid-19 cases to 13 - 8 of them linked to the Biogen meeting. Another three people - a Tennessee resident and two foreigners who were at that meeting have also been diagnosed with the virus.

The states says that of the five new cases, four are among people from Middlesex County: a woman in her 40s, another in her 50s, a man in his 40s and a man in his 60s. The fifth case is a Berkshire County man in his 60s.

One of the non-Biogen cases was in a person who had recently returned from Italy; the other is still under investigation by state epidemiologists. Wicked Local Concord reports the travel case was diagnosed at Emerson Hospital in Concord, after calling the hospital on returning from Italy. That person is now self quarantined at home with mild symptoms.