Infections are rising at a rapid clip in Eastern Mass.

Just as the autumn chill has set in around Boston, COVID cases have begun to rise — a trend in keeping with the past two years, when the start of the cold weather season brought on a wave of infections. 

Cases among children and teens ages 10 to 19 have jumped the most, up by nearly 60 percent, according to a report last week from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Likely that’s because of “a lot more social mixing” at school, said Andrew Lover, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Boston city officials also warned that case counts had increased by 37.7 percent within two weeks this month. 

The waste water numbers — a trusty indicator of future COVID waves — shot up, too, starting on Sept. 21. 

Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, the head of the city’s public health commission, said the uptick is a reminder to get the new Omicron-specific booster. 

Other top stories 

• The short-term spending bill the Senate passed Thursday does not include additional funding for the COVID-19 and monkeypox response, as President Biden had hoped it would.
• Massachusetts students have not yet recovered academically from COVID, and new MCAS scores are lagging behind pre-pandemic numbers. 

Relatively little of the federal aid distributed during COVID has gone toward traditional public health purposes, the Associated Press found. Instead, it funded public infrastructure.