Several area towns now COVID-19 red zones; deaths at Hadley nursing home In this Jan. 6, 2021, photo, a person is inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine in Pompano Beach, Florida. AP PHOTO/WILFREDO LEE Modified: 1/8/2021 2:59:00 PM NORTHAMPTON — Several area communities are now COVID-19 hotspots in the latest weekly report issued by the state Department of Public Health. Though Hampshire County’s two largest communities, Northampton and Amherst, are in the yellow, or caution zone, in part because their positivity rates are below 5%, Easthampton, South Hadley, Hadley, Belchertown, and Southampton are all labeled red, along with Holyoke, according to the dashboard. For the smaller communities, the status comes by having more than 25 new COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks, and for the larger towns it is due to having more than 10 cases per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate exceeding 5%.