'Yellow' Designation Means Caution In Peabody's Coronavirus Fight

PEABODY, MA — Peabody's coronavirus test numbers edged higher this week as the city pushed into the "yellow" caution category, according to the state's report released Wednesday night.

The city's test-positive rate sat at 1.43 percent with 5.51 cases per 100,000 residents. That push Peabody into being a "yellow" caution community in the state's latest interactive map after it has been in the "green" safe category in recent weeks.

Last week, Peabody had a test-positive rate of 1.03 with 3.8 cases per 100,000 residents.

The city had 43 new known positive cases over the past two weeks.

Communities with between 4.0 and 8.0 cases per 100,000 residents are considered caution communities, according to the state.

Forty communities were designated high-risk — with 8.0 or higher cases per 100,000 residents —in the new town-by-town data released by the state Wednesday, up from 23 the week before.

Positive test rates rose in over half of the state's 351 communities.

The positive test rate over the last two weeks increased in 176 — or 50.1 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate fell in 68 — or 19.4 percent — communities and held steady in the remaining 148.

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.

With Wednesday's update, Dedham, Monson and Plainville cleared the required three weeks without being marked high-risk, and can move forward. A number of other communities were not red, Wednesday, but remain barred from reopening due to being high-risk more recently.

The following 19 communities were added to the list, Wednesday: Acushnet, Amherst, Brockton, Chelmsford, Dartmouth, Dudley, Holyoke, Hudson, Kingston, Leicester, Malden, Plymouth, Randolph, Southborough, Southbridge, Sunderland, Waltham, Webster and Woburn.

(Patch Editor Christopher Huffaker contributed to this report.)

Related Patch Coverage: MA Town-By-Town Coronavirus Stats: 40 High-Risk Communities

Peabody Remains 'Green' Even As Coronavirus Numbers Tick Up