New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Governor Charlie Baker announced yesterday that the communities in Massachusetts that are at high risk for COVID-19 jumped from 7 to 13 in just one week. The common theme among most of these cities where the virus is persisting is that they are poorer, smaller cities that have struggled to contain the virus.
“In a handful of cities we’ve been focusing on our efforts with local officials to deal with dangerously high levels of transmission there,” Baker said.
Prior to yesterday’s announcement, the 7 towns and cities listed as high-risk were Chelsea, Everett, Framingham, Lawrence, Lynn, Revere, and Winthrop. New Bedford was elevated to high-risk joining the other new communities added to the list, Chatham, Dedham, Lynnfield, Methuen, and Monson.
High-risk for COVID-19 is classified as having a daily average of eight or more COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the two-week period ending Saturday.
Illustrating that fluidity of these risk evaluations, Gov. Baker added that 47 municipalities have successfully reduced their cases and improved their assessments.
The only positive news to come out of the press conference was that the weekly average positive test rate for the state dropped back to a record low of 0.8%.
Currently, the state records the total number of confirmed and probable cases to 123,143 and the number of fatalities to 9,146.
Massachusetts DPH photo.
