Wilmington Coronavirus Rate Rises, But Town Stays Moderate-Risk

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington is still considered a moderate-risk community, according to weekly state data released Thursday. But the town's case count and positive test rates continued to rise, with 20 confirmed cases over the last two weeks.

Seventy-seven communities across the commonwealth were designated high-risk, Thursday up from 63 from last week. Wilmington stayed in the yellow zone with an average daily rate of 5.9 cases per 100,000, up from 5.3 last week, according to state data.

On Monday, the town Health Department reported 17 active positive cases and 22 residents in quarantine for potential exposure.

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.

Statewide, the positive test rate rose to 1.4 percent, the highest level since mid-August and up from 0.8 percent in mid-September. In Wilmington, the positive rate rose from 1.43 percent to 1.55.

The state reported 986 confirmed cases and 30 deaths associated with the virus across the state, Thursday. There have been 9,589 deaths and 143,927 confirmed cases statewide since the pandemic reached the Bay State in March.

In Wilmington, 409 people have tested positive for the virus since March. That includes 20 cases over the last two weeks.

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 9 average daily cases per 100,000 residents, keeping the state above the high-risk threshold for the second week in a row.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.