New Bedford officially out of COVID red zone; Mattapoisett reaches white designation
The Standard-Times
NEW BEDFORD Thursday s Department of Public Health report on the latest local COVID data brought long awaited news as the city of New Bedford made a shift into the state s yellow designation for COVID rates indicating moderate risk of spread within the community.
It was the first time this year the city had received anything but the red, or high risk, designation from state health officials. A yellow designation indicates an average of less than 10 cases per 100,000 residents, or the community has less than/equal to a 4% positivity rate.
The Standard-Times
NEW BEDFORD Thursday s Department of Public Health report on the latest local COVID data had another Greater New Bedford community break out of the state s COVID red or high-risk designation, as rates of virus spread continue trending downward.
Acushnet is now deemed a yellow or moderate risk community for COVID spread, according to the latest state report.
Last week s report saw Westport slashing its daily incidence rate nearly in half and moving into yellow. Mattapoisett moving into green. The only safer category according to the Massachusetts Department of Health s ranking system is white, indicating less than five reported cases per 100,000 people.
Gov. Wolf and Acting Sec. of Health Beam today released a weekly status update detailing the state’s mitigation efforts based on the COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System dashboard, highlighting a seven-day case increase of 12,967, a statewide percent positivity of 6.3% and 26 counties with substantial transmission status.
The numbers of COVID-19 cases went downward significantly over the past week, and particularly in the past few days – a move that helped move Everett from the state’s ‘red’ category and into the state’s ‘yellow’ category for the first time since the pandemic began.
“For the first week Everett has moved from Red to Yellow,” said Mayor Carlo DeMaria. “I am hopeful that we can continue to see the decrease in the amount of daily cases and continue to see the percent positivity decrease as well.
Thank you for doing your part, it’s working. Keep wearing your mask, wash your hands, and socially distance.”