Falmouth Positive Coronavirus Tests See Big Drop From Last Month

FALMOUTH, MA — Local cities and towns have been giving almost daily updates on local coronavirus cases since the outbreak began.

But for the past two months, the state Department of Public Health began releasing data on per capita coronavirus rates, offering a different perspective on how the virus is spreading at the local level. State officials also began releasing the percent of tests that came back positive at the town level.

Looking at the number of cases per 100,000 residents in a given town shows how far the virus has infiltrated the population.

On the Cape, Brewster and Provincetown — both with populations under 10,000 (Provincetown is even smaller at less than 3,000) — have a much higher coronavirus infection rate than larger towns like Barnstable and Falmouth. Both Brewster and Provincetown however have a lower total number of cases than Falmouth and Barnstable.

As far as rates of positive tests, Falmouth's downward trend has continued, especially over the last month. From June 3 to Wednesday, the town's rate of positive tests dropped from 8.19 to 5.22 percent.

Here's a look at coronavirus rates on Cape Cod, and where Barnstable ranks among them. These figures are from the state DPH and were calculated using case counts current as of July 1.