Published in the October 8, 2020 edition.
WAKEFIELD — The town’s COVID-19 cases continue to tick up, a trend that has been developing in other communities as well.
Yesterday’s weekly update from the state’s Department of Public Health shows that Wakefield once again remains in the green category, which is the second most favorable one. However, there are nine more cases reported in Wakefield this week than there were in last week’s report.
With colder weather on the way and the region’s traditionally long winter in sight, health officials have warned that the COVID-19 virus case count would increase.
In Wakefield, there have been a total of 371 cases since the spring, with 15 positive cases reported over the last 14 days. There have been a total of 2,153 tests performed on residents here in that same period of time. Overall, there have been 14,097 tests performed.
Last week’s DPW report had 362 total cases in town.
Lynnfield and Melrose are in the yellow category, one away from the high risk red designation.
Two communities improved out of the state’s highest COVID-19 risk category this week, but 19 others saw conditions worsen to the point that they have been given the highest-risk red label by the Department of Public Health.
Red is the color assigned to municipalities where the average daily incidence rate is more than 8 cases per 100,000 residents and those municipalities are not allowed to move ahead with some of the latest reopening steps recently announced by Gov. Charlie Baker. Holliston and Lynnfield saw conditions improve and were both moved into the moderate-risk yellow category Wednesday.
At the same time, coronavirus conditions worsened in Acushnet, Sunderland, Woburn, Webster, Brockton, Holyoke, Malden, Chelmsford, Dartmouth, Plymouth, Southborough, Southbridge, Waltham, Amherst, Dudley, Hudson, Randolph, Kingston and Leicester, and those communities became color-coded red for the first time Wednesday.
With the latest additions, the 40 red, highest-risk communities in Massachusetts are: Acushnet, Amherst, Attleboro, Avon, Boston, Brockton, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Dartmouth, Dracut, Dudley, Everett, Framingham, Haverhill, Holyoke, Hudson, Kingston, Lawrence, Leicester, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Marlborough, Methuen, Middleton, Nantucket, New Bedford, North Andover, Plymouth, Randolph, Revere, Southborough, Southbridge, Springfield, Sunderland, Waltham, Webster, Winthrop, Woburn and Worcester.
If the entire state were a municipality, it would be color-coded yellow to designate moderate risk. The statewide COVID-19 incidence rate over the last 14 days is an average of 7.3 daily cases per 100,000 residents, DPH said.
DPH also reported 509 new cases of COVID-19 and announced 19 recent deaths associated with the virus on Wednesday. The seven-day average positive test rate remained at 1.1 percent but hospitalizations rose above 500, climbing by 21 patients to 515 total as of midday Wednesday.
— Colin A. Young of the State House News Service contributed to this report.