New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Chris Lisinski
State House News Service
Cities and towns with the highest rates of COVID-19 infection in the latest round of state data continued to have larger nonwhite populations and lower incomes, while Chelsea remained a hotspot with a rate nearly twice that of any other community.
Through 12 p.m. Wednesday, the Department of Public Health reported 2,412 cases in Chelsea, a rate of about 6,403 infections per 100,000 residents. The second-highest rate in the state was in Brockton with 3,490 infections per 100,000 residents.
In terms of overall cases, Boston still has the largest outbreak: its 11,551 cases through Wednesday were nearly three times as many as the 3,549 in Worcester, which has the second-largest total of confirmed cases. Nine of the 10 communities with the highest case rates — Chelsea, Brockton, Everett, Lynn, Lawrence, Revere, Randolph, Lowell and Stoughton — have populations where the percentage of nonwhite residents is higher than the statewide average of 20.7 percent, and five of them have majority nonwhite populations, according to Census data. The only exception in the top 10 is Danvers, which reported a rate of 2,157 cases per 100,000 people and has a population that is 93.4 percent white.
