66 Massachusetts communities at high risk for coronavirus transmission, continuing decline

The number of cities and towns at high risk for coronavirus transmission nearly halved this week, falling to just 66 from 110 last week.

See the city and town stats.

It’s the first time the number of communities in the high-risk “red” zone has fallen below 100 since early December, according to weekly data from the Department of Public Health.

And it continues a significant decline from the peak of 229 high-risk cities and towns in January as coronavirus cases surged after the holidays.

“Our case numbers are showing an excellent trend downward,” Vaira Harik, Barnstable County’s deputy director of health and human services, said on a Cape Cod COVID-19 Reopening Task Force call on Thursday. “We’re at daily new case numbers that we haven’t attained since early October, early to mid-October, so we are on the downside of this holiday surge, certainly.”

Here are the 66 cities and towns at high risk for COVID-19 transmission this week:

Abington, Acushnet, Ayer, Barnstable, Berkley, Blackstone, Bolton, Boxford, Brewster, Bridgewater, Brockton, Carver, Chatham, Chelsea, Chicopee, Clinton, Cohasset, Dighton, Douglas, Dracut, Fall River, Freetown, Gardner, Georgetown, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lakeville, Lancaster, Lawrence, Leominster, Littleton, Lowell, Ludlow and Lynn.

Marion, Methuen, Middleboro, New Bedford, North Reading, Orleans, Oxford, Peabody, Plainville, Plymouth, Raynham, Revere, Rockland, Rutland, Saugus, Seekonk, Somerset, Southampton, Southbridge, Southwick, Springfield, Sterling, Sunderland, Swansea, Taunton, Templeton, Ware, West Bridgewater, Westminster, Westport, Weymouth and Whitman.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Nk7qRp