North Andover Case Rate Falls, But Town Remains High-Risk

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — North Andover is still considered a high-risk community, according to weekly state data released Wednesday.

The town is among 63 communities across the commonwealth that has been designated high-risk, up 23 from last week. North Andover stayed in the red zone with an average daily rate of 15.6cases per 100,000, down from 34.48 last week, according to state data. It was first designated a high-risk community two weeks ago.

State officials have said that high-risk communities, along with those considered high-risk in the past 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 day per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks.

Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday that the state would not make exceptions for towns that can trace outbreaks to specific institutions, like North Andover's Merrimack College outbreak.

North Andover's percent positivity is 0.76 percent, down from last week's 1.64 percent. Statewide, the positive test rate rose to 1.3 percent, up from 0.8 percent in mid-September.

The state reported 518 confirmed cases and 16 deaths associated with the virus across the state, Wednesday. There have been 9,429 deaths and 138,083 confirmed cases statewide since the pandemic reached the Bay State in March.

In North Andover 588 people have tested positive for the virus since March.

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.

Statewide, there were 8.7 average daily cases per 100,000 residents, putting the state above the high-risk threshold for the first time since the metric was introduced.