DPH: 63 communities now considered ‘high-risk’ zones for COVID-19

BOSTON — New COVID-19 health data issued by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Wednesday, Oct. 14 shows a spike in the number of communities in the state considered at high risk for COVID-19. Seeing an increase of 23 cities and towns from a week ago, the state now has 63 communities in its high-risk category.

As a state, Massachusetts is also now considered high-risk, with an average daily case rate of 8.7 per 100,000 population over the last 14 days.

Compared to the previous two week period, 78% of communities in the state have either seen improvement or no change in their average daily case numbers.

Last week saw 19 new communities added to the high-risk category. The City of Boston, now registering an increase of 1,081 new cases within the last 14 days, has entered its third week of being considered a red zone.

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63 Massachusetts communities now considered high-risk for COVID-19

Currently, the following towns are considered high-risk for coronavirus: Abington, Acushnet, Amherst, Attleboro, Auburn, Berkley, Boston, Brockton, Canton, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Dartmouth, East Bridgewater, East Longmeadow, Everett, Fairhaven, Fall River, Framingham, Hanover, Hanson, Haverhill, Hingham, Holbrook, Holliston, Holyoke, Hudson, Kingston, Lawrence, Leicester, Littleton, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Marlborough, Marshfield, Methuen, Middleton, Milford, Milton, Nantucket, New Bedford, North Andover, Oxford, Pembroke, Plymouth, Randolph, Revere, Rockland, Saugus, Shrewsbury, Somerville, Southborough, Springfield, Sunderland, Tyngsboro, Wakefield, Waltham, Webster, West Newbury, Weymouth, Winthrop, Woburn and Worcester.

Four towns moved out of the high-risk zone after being in the “red zone” last week: Avon, Dracut, Dudley and Southbridge. Three of the four – Dracut, Dudley and Southbridge – moved down into the “yellow zone,” which is designated for an average daily case rate of four to eight cases per 100,000 population over the last 14 days. Avon dropped all the way down into the “gray zone” – the lowest possible designation – which is for communities that have less than five reported cases in the last 14 days.

Abington, Auburn, Berkley, East Bridgewater, East Longmeadow, Fairhaven, Fall River, Hanover, Hanson, Hingham, Holbrook, Holliston, Littleton, Marshfield, Milford, Milton, Oxford, Pembroke, Rockland, Saugus, Shrewsbury, Somerville, Tyngsboro, Wakefield, West Newbury and Weymouth were all newly added to the high-risk list this week.

In the state as a whole, there has now been a total of 138,083 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 518 newly reported Wednesday. An additional 16 new deaths bring the death toll to 9,429 people who died with confirmed cases of COVID-19.

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According to this week’s report, the average age of COVID-19 cases for the last two weeks is 38, while the average age of total cases hospitalized in the last two weeks is 65. When it comes to fatalities, the average age of deaths in COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks is 78.

There are 119 new confirmed COVID-19 cases associated with higher education testing since last week, bringing that total up to 1,177.

The state’s town-level data is now available in an interactive map. You can explore the data in more detail below or view a full-screen version here:

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