Holliston Moves Back To 'High Risk' Virus Designation

HOLLISTON, MA — A jump in positive COVID-19 cases pushed Holliston back onto the state's "high risk community" list, also known as the "red" communities. Holliston has flipped between high and moderate risk designations for the past month.

In the last two weeks, Holliston reported 17 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the town's total case count to 115. Holliston has 8.8 average daily incidents per 100,000 residents of COVID-19, meeting the state's high-risk threshold.

Over the last two weeks, Holliston has tested 1,219 people, bumping its total testing number to 7,178. But in the last two weeks alone, 20 tests came back positive in town. The town's percent positive rate over the last two weeks rose to 1.64 percent. 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.

State rules mean that high-risk communities, plus others that were high-risk in the last two updates, cannot move on to the next phase of reopening. Sixty-three communities were designated high-risk in the new town-by-town data released by the state Wednesday.

View the state's interactive COVID-19 map.