Beverly Coronavirus Rates Push Higher For Second Straight Week

BEVERLY, MA — Positive cases of coronavirus in Beverly rose for the second straight week in Beverly as the city moved into a new category of caution for community spread, according to state metrics.

Over the past two weeks, Beverly's cases of coronavirus per 100,000 — the metric the state uses to determine whether a community can move forward in businesses reopening and keeping schools in in-person learning — went from 1.56 to 5.2. There were 30 confirmed positive cases of coronavirus in the city over the past 14 days.

The city's 14-day rolling average of its test-positive rate was also higher, but remained relatively low at 0.44 percent.

The latest total puts Beverly in the "yellow" caution category after being a green "safe" community in recent weeks.

The state as a whole also remained above the high-risk threshold, reporting over eight average daily cases per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks. Seventy-seven communities — including Swampscott — were designated "high-risk" communities in the latest state report.

The positive test rate over the last two weeks increased in 130 — or 37.0 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate fell in 90 — or 25.6 percent — communities and held steady in the remaining 131.

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 average daily confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks.

The full list of town-by-town data can be found here.

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