MA Town-By-Town Coronavirus Stats: High-Risk List Shrinks By 7

MASSACHUSETTS — The Massachusetts Department of Health designated 222 cities and towns as high risk for the coronavirus in the latest community-level report Thursday, reducing the number of communities on the list for the first time in months.

The seven-day average positive test rate for the state fell to 5.65 percent, the lowest level since November. Statewide case counts, hospitalizations and deaths all fell on average over the last week as well, although all measures remained far above the lows over the summer.

Massachusetts expanded vaccine eligibility to all of phase one Thursday, which includes home-based health care workers and health workers not involved in pandemic response.

Gov. Charlie Baker toured the Gillette Stadium mass vaccination site, which has done 2,000 vaccinations since Monday and is expected to ramp up to 5,000 per day.

"Within the next 10 days to two weeks you are going see a lot more (vaccine) site infrastructure in Massachusetts," Baker said. "A lot more."

The state is also lifting certain business restrictions, Baker said Thursday.

Beginning Monday, the state will lift its stay-at-home advisory and an order requiring most businesses to close by 9:30 p.m., the beginning of what might be a slow return to some semblance of normalcy for businesses. But the 25 percent capacity limit for most businesses will be in place at least another two weeks.

While COVID-19 numbers have improved in recent weeks, they are still significantly higher than when the stay-at-home advisory was instituted in the late fall. In early November, the positive test rate was below 3 percent; there were fewer than 2,000 new daily cases on average and about 20 average daily deaths.

There were 4,821 new confirmed cases and 75 deaths Thursday.

The seven-day average of hospitalized patients was 2,208, down from 2,283 a week prior. There were 430 patients in intensive care.

The town-by-town report labeled 222 Massachusetts communities as high risk for the virus, down from 229 last week; the full list can be found at the end of this article.

The positive test rate over the last two weeks increased in 53 — or 15.1 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate fell in 279 — or 79.5 percent — of communities and held steady in the remaining 19. Two-week confirmed case counts rose in 117 communities.

There were 75.5 average daily cases per 100,000 residents of the state over that period, down from 78 last week.

To date, there have been 462,910 cases and 13,622 confirmed deaths statewide since the pandemic began. Officials estimate that there were 88,929 active cases as of Thursday.

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Health officials say positive coronavirus test results need to stay below 5 percent for two weeks or longer and, preferably, be closer to 2 percent, for states to safely ease restrictions. The number of communities reporting rates above 5 percent fell to 234, from 260 last week.

Six towns reported positive test rates of 15 percent or higher: Mount Washington, Tolland, Peru, Chester, Lawrence and Gardner. Twenty-nine reported test rates below 2 percent.

The state reported 111,726 new tests Thursday, bringing the total to 12.6 million.

The data includes coronavirus cases for all Massachusetts communities, except for those with populations under 50,000 and fewer than five cases. The department said the stipulation was designed to protect the privacy of patients in those towns and cities.

The state releases town-by-town testing data every Thursday, including the number of people tested, the testing rate, the positive test rate, cases and infection rates.

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How to use this map: Zoom in on the map below and click on a pin to see that community's coronavirus case data. You can also view the town-by-town coronavirus data in the spreadsheet we used to create this map.

The map does not include 1,365 of the state's cases because state health officials could not determine which communities the patients lived in.

Pin colors correspond to the state's risk designations. Red pins are high-risk, or red, communities. Yellow pins are medium risk, green pins low risk and gray pins at most 15 total cases.


High-risk communities: Abington, Acushnet, Adams, Agawam, Amesbury, Andover, Ashburnham, Ashby, Ashland, Athol, Attleboro, Auburn, Avon, Ayer, Barnstable, Barre, Belchertown, Bellingham, Berkley, Berlin, Beverly, Billerica, Blackstone, Boston, Bourne, Boxborough, Boxford, Boylston, Braintree, Brewster, Bridgewater, Brimfield, Brockton, Brookfield, Burlington, Canton, Carver, Charlton, Chatham, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Chicopee, Clinton, Cohasset, Dalton, Danvers, Dartmouth, Dedham, Deerfield, Dennis, Dighton, Douglas, Dover, Dracut, Dudley, Duxbury, East Bridgewater, East Brookfield, East Longmeadow, Easton, Edgartown, Everett, Fairhaven, Fall River, Falmouth, Fitchburg, Foxborough, Framingham, Franklin, Freetown, Gardner, Georgetown, Gloucester, Grafton, Granby, Great Barrington, Groveland, Hadley, Halifax, Hamilton, Hampden, Hanover, Hanson, Harwich, Hatfield, Haverhill, Holbrook, Holden, Holliston, Holyoke, Hopedale, Hudson, Hull, Ipswich, Kingston, Lakeville, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lee, Leicester, Leominster, Littleton, Lowell, Ludlow, Lunenburg, Lynn, Lynnfield, Malden, Manchester, Mansfield, Marion, Marlborough, Marshfield, Mashpee, Mattapoisett, Maynard, Medford, Medway, Merrimac, Methuen, Middleborough, Middleton, Milford, Millbury, Millis, Monson, Nahant, Nantucket, New Bedford, Newbury, Norfolk, North Andover, North Attleborough, North Brookfield, North Reading, Norton, Norwell, Norwood, Oak Bluffs, Orange, Oxford, Palmer, Paxton, Peabody, Pembroke, Pepperell, Pittsfield, Plainville, Plymouth, Plympton, Quincy, Randolph, Raynham, Reading, Rehoboth, Revere, Rochester, Rockland, Rockport, Rowley, Rutland, Salem, Salisbury, Sandwich, Saugus, Scituate, Seekonk, Shirley, Shrewsbury, Somerset, Southampton, Southborough, Southbridge, Southwick, Spencer, Springfield, Sterling, Stoneham, Stoughton, Stow, Sturbridge, Sunderland, Sutton, Swampscott, Swansea, Taunton, Templeton, Tewksbury, Tisbury, Topsfield, Townsend, Tyngsborough, Upton, Uxbridge, Wakefield, Walpole, Waltham, Ware, Wareham, Warren, Webster, Wenham, West Boylston, West Bridgewater, West Brookfield, West Newbury, West Springfield, Westfield, Westford, Westminster, Westport, Westwood, Weymouth, Whitman, Wilbraham, Wilmington, Winchendon, Winthrop, Woburn, Worcester, Wrentham and Yarmouth.

This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch