Barnstable Coronavirus Rate Rise: Town Upgraded To Yellow

BARNSTABLE, MA — Forty communities were designated high-risk in the new town-by-town data released by the state Wednesday. Barnstable wasn't one of those communities, but the town's case count and positive test rate both rose over the last two weeks.

State rules mean that high-risk communities, plus others that were high-risk in the last two updates, cannot move on to the next phase of reopening. Towns were marked high-risk, or red, if they reported more than eight confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks.

The state upgraded Barnstable's coronavirus threat level by deeming it a "yellow" community, meaning it averaged between four and 8 daily cases per 100,000 people over the last two weeks. Barnstable averaged 4.14 new daily cases per 100,000 residents.

The latest data showed the positive test rate over the last two weeks increased in 146 of the 351 communities in the state. The rate fell in 70 communities and held steady in the remaining 135.

Barnstable's case count over the last 14 days was 26, bringing the total number of cases to 481, according to state data. The town has conducted 1,922 tests over the past two weeks, 28 of which came back positive. There have been 16,230 tests conducted overall in Barnstable.

The town's percent positive rate over the last two weeks rose to 1.46 percent. Health officials say positive test results need to stay below 5 percent for two weeks or longer and, preferably, be closer to 2 percent, for states to safely ease restrictions.

View the state's interactive COVID-19 map.