Peabody Adds 2 April Coronavirus Testing Dates

PEABODY, MA — Peabody will hold two more coronavirus testing clinics in April as the city looks to monitor virus levels in the city and avoid some of the recent surges in communities across the state.

The city will hold free, drive-thru testing for residents on April 14 and April 28 at Higgins Middle School on Perkins Street. Testing will occur between 4 and 7 p.m. Proof of residency is required.

"Although everyone is focused on vaccines right now, testing is still a critical part of the strategy to control COVID. Please continue to monitor yourself each day for symptoms before heading out into the community, and get tested if you have symptoms consistent with COVID or if you've had exposure to someone with COVID," the Peabody Health Department said. "In addition to our twice-monthly testing events in Peabody, other local Stop the Spread sites are still operating daily."

The Salem Stop the Spread sites continue to run each weekday at Salem High School and Old Town Hall in Salem. The state recently announced those will remain open at least another three months.

Peabody was one of the final communities on the North Shore to drop out of the state's "high risk" category for community spread before it finally cleared the hurdle two weeks ago. Virus rates in the city ticked back higher, according to last week's state report, with 25.0 cases per 100,000 residents and a positive-test 7-day average of 3.64 percent.

The statewide positive-test average as of Wednesday was 2.53 percent — up from a low of 1.63 percent early this month and down from a peak of 8.6 percent in early January.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)