Peabody Still 'High Risk' For Coronavirus Despite Falling Rates

PEABODY, MA — Peabody followed the trend of much of the state with lower coronavirus rates even as the city remained on the state's "high risk" category for community spread.

The city reported 493 new cases of coronavirus over the past two weeks — the lowest number since 458 cases were reported over a 14-day period leading up to the Dec. 3 state report. Peabody had a positive test rate of 5.98 percent and 52.5 cases per 100,000 people.

The case rate is the lowest since Nov. 20 when it was 36.9, but also well above the lows of the summer and early fall when the state designated any community with more than 8.0 cases per 100,000 residents as a high-risk community.

The statewide positive test rate was 3.29 percent as of Thursday — down from a peak of 8.6 percent in early January.

The Massachusetts Department of Health designated 153 cities and towns as high risk for the coronavirus in the latest community-level report Thursday, down 39 from last week. Positive test rates fell in more than three-quarters of cities and towns.

The seven-day average positive test rate for the state fell to 3.29 percent, down a percentage point over the last week. Statewide case counts, hospitalizations and deaths also all fell over the last week.

As the result of "dramatic declines" in virus counts, Gov. Charlie Baker Thursday said that starting Monday many businesses — including offices, stores, restaurants and gyms — will be allowed to operate at 40 percent capacity after being limited to 25 percent since Dec. 26.

"If you think back to the spring it took a really long time for our COVID hospitalization counts to go down once we went over the peak," Baker said during a Thursday news conference. "We were on the slowest slope line you could imagine for a really long time. We did not have anything that looked like the drop we've seen over the last three or four weeks this time."

The positive test rate over the last two weeks fell in 281 — or 80.1 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate rose in 43 — or 12.3 percent — of communities and held steady in the remaining 27. Two-week confirmed case counts rose in just 53 communities.

There were 48.9 average daily cases per 100,000 residents of the state over that period, down from 59.4 last week.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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