State Working With 5 Hardest-Hit Cities To Stem COVID-19 Spread

The state is making additional efforts to help stem coronavirus spread in the five hardest-hit communities.

Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday said Chelsea, Everett, Lawrence, Lynn, Revere — all of which have transmission rates between significantly higher than the state average — were identified as cities the state will work with most closely. The initiative will involve the new COVID-19 Enforcement and Intervention team.

The state is collaborating with local officials on a multi-lingual effort to educate people on best practices and enforce social distancing rules among some of the worst offenders. The information campaign will utilize billboards, digital messaging, phone and text outreach and more.

"People have the power here to save a life and everybody needs to do their part to stop the virus," Baker said.

Free testing will also be expanded.

Baker said contact tracing indicates "unsupervised, unofficial" large gatherings are among the biggest issues in the cities.

"All residents in those communities really ought to stay home if they get sick," Baker said.

Those five cities were among eight deemed to be at the highest risk for coronavirus in Wednesday's new map.

Framingham, Westhampton and Winthrop were the other communities shaded red in the state's color-coded map released this week. Communities in the red have had more than eight confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks.

Brockton and Sutton improved from red to yellow since the previous week's report.

The latest town-by-town data showed the positive test rate over the last two weeks increased in 100— or 28 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate fell in 118, or 34 percent, communities and held steady in the remaining 133.

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The color designations are more than informational. The state can work with communities in the red to stop the spread of COVID-19 with additional resources and free testing.

Also, communities in the red that are starting the fall with remote-only learning must postpone sports until a still-to-be-determined "floating season."

Communities in the yellow have had between four and eight coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents; communities in the green have had fewer than four coronavirus cases per 100,000; and communities in the white have had fewer than five confirmed cases.

Chris Huffaker, Patch staff, contributed to this report