Salem's Coronavirus Test-Positive Rate Makes More Progress

SALEM, MA — The news continues to be good for Salem when it comes to its coronavirus case rate.

Less than a month after it was designated as a "red" hot spot community in the state, the latest report has the test-positive rate dropping to 1.2 percent in a two-week rolling average. The state's test-positive rate over the same span is 1.0 — with Gov. Charlie Baker saying on Friday that the most recent testing data is showing the state at 0.8 percent.

The positive rate when Salem was designed a "red" community on Aug. 16 was 3.87.

Gov. Baker had praised the city twice this week for its residents' and visitors' use of face masks in public and gave Mayor Kim Driscoll kudos on Thursday for the city having masks available in public for those who need them.

The city's rate of cases per 100,000 residents is 5.2 per day — keeping it as a "yellow" caution community in the state's color-coded interactive map — compared to the state average of 4.6. That number is slightly higher than last week's average of 4.92.

The trend in the right direction has come amid the return of Salem State students to campus with strict coronavirus protocols and helped the city decide to allow some high school sports to be played this fall in a decision this week.

View the state's interactive map here.

(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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