Half Of Newton Residents Have At Least One Dose Of The Vaccine

NEWTON, MA — More than half of Newton residents — 55 percent or 50,853 people — have gotten at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine as of April 15, according to state data released Thursday.

More than a third, or 35 percent, of residents have been fully vaccinated.

Newton stayed in the yellow, or moderate risk category for another week as the city's positive test rate over the past two weeks stayed under 1 percent, according to the town-by-town state data.

Newton's positivity rate was 0.66 percent, down from 0.75 percent reported last week. The city had 212 cases of the virus in the past two-week period, down slightly from 220 last week.

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

Newton's numbers mirrored the direction that many municipalities are headed across the state. Massachusetts reported a slight decrease in the number of high-risk communities in the latest town-by-town report Thursday, labeling 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. The weekly average case rate, hospitalization and death rate also fell: The seven-day average death rate of 8.1 is the lowest on record.

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.