27 New Coronavirus Cases In Stoughton: Latest State Numbers

STOUGHTON, MA — Sixty-three communities were designated high-risk in the new town-by-town data released by the state Wednesday. Stoughton wasn't one of those communities and saw relatively little change to its case count and positive test rate over the last two weeks.

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. Towns were marked high-risk, or red, if they reported more than eight confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks.

Those 63 communities pushed the state's own coronavirus threat to red as a whole. The state as a reported over eight average daily cases per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks.

The state kept Stoughton's coronavirus threat level at moderate by deeming it a "yellow" community, meaning it averaged between four and 8 daily cases per 100,000 people over the last two weeks. Stoughton averaged seven new daily cases per 100,000 residents.

The positive test rate over the last two weeks increased in 168 — or 47.9 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate fell in 80 — or 22.8 percent — communities and held steady in the remaining 103.

Stoughton's case count over the last 14 days was 27, bringing the total number of cases to 697, according to state data. The town has conducted 1,944 tests over the past two weeks, 29 of which came back positive. There have been 14,097 tests conducted overall in Stoughton.

The town's percent positive rate over the last two weeks rose was 1.49 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.

View the state's interactive COVID-19 map.