Beverly Coronavirus Cases Push Higher Ahead Of Holidays

BEVERLY, MA — Coronavirus rates continued to surge in Beverly this past week with 385 positive cases reported over the past 14 days.

The city's cases per 100,000 people — a key metric the state uses in determining whether a city or town is at "high risk" for community spread — rose to 56.5, up from 39.83 last week. The metric was 26.3 two weeks ago, according to the state's weekly report.

More than half of Massachusetts cities and towns were designated high risk by the Massachusetts Department of Health Thursday. Positive test rates rose in 275 communities.

Beverly remained short of the threshold for being a "high risk community."

Beverly's 385 positive cases were a jump from 256 last week and 151 two weeks ago, while the positive test rate rose to 4.67 percent from 3.45 percent last week and 1.98 two weeks ago.

The statewide positive test rate rose to 6.0 percent.

Beverly will conduct free coronavirus drive-thru testing for residents Sunday at Lynch Park. The testing will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with residents strongly encouraged to pre-register online for testing via Cataldo Ambulance at a link that can be found here.

Residents are asked to come to the site as close to the appointment time as possible to help mitigate long lines. Everyone who is in line before 1 p.m. will receive a test.

The statewide positive test rate over the last two weeks increased in 243 — or 69.2 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate fell in 74 — or 21.1 percent of — communities and held steady in the remaining 34.

There were 65.1 average daily cases per 100,000 residents of the state over that period, up from 50 last week.

More Patch Coverage: MA Town-By-Town Coronavirus Stats: Majority Of Towns High Risk

Beverly Coronavirus Cases Surge Higher In Latest State Report

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