Barnstable Still High Risk For Coronavirus, But Numbers Improve

BARNSTABLE, MA — Barnstable's coronavirus metrics stayed in the red, or high risk for contagion zone for another week, according to the latest town-by-town reports from the state. But cases counts and the positive test rate both headed in the right direction

The town's positive test rate over the last two weeks was 6.05 percent, down from 7.61 percent in last week's report and 9.63 in the report two weeks ago. The town had 241 cases in the past two period, a significant drop from the 406 last week.

>>MA Town-By-Town Coronavirus Stats: Declines Across All Metrics

Barnstable's improvement in its coronavirus metrics coincided with the rest of the state.

Massachusetts reported a slight decrease in the number of high-risk communities in the latest town-by-town report Thursday. The Department of Public Health labeled 59 communities as high risk for the coronavirus, down from 77 in the previous report.

The seven-day average positive test rate for the state fell from 2.43 percent last week to 2.3 percent. That's still above where the state was two weeks ago, but it's in the right direction. The weekly average case rate, hospitalization and death rate also fell.

The latest vaccine report shows the number of residents who are fully vaccinated has risen to 1.9 million. Another 1.2 million have received one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. Gov. Charlie Baker has said that Massachusetts would need to get to more than 4 million people vaccinated to achieve "herd immunity" in the state.

In Barnstable 14,989 people are fully vaccinated, according to the state report this week. And over 50 percent of the town's residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.