Stoughton Deemed High Risk For Coronavirus With 125 New Cases

STOUGHTON, MA — Stoughton added 125 coronavirus cases over the last two weeks, bringing it to over 970 confirmed cases, according to town-by-town data released by the state. State officials designated the town in the high-risk category, averaging 32.3 daily cases per 100,000 residents, with a positive test rate of 5.24 percent.

That's up from 28.1 average daily cases and a test rate of 4.4 percent in the state's last public health report, released Nov. 19. There have been 972 cases in Stoughton since March.

Stoughton Town Manger Robin Grimm in a Facebook post asked residents to limit their contact with people and continue practicing safety measures.

"Unfortunately, as have been our surrounding communities for the past several weeks, Stoughton’s positive COVID cases has increased significantly," Grimm said. "We went from averaging six to eight cases a day to about 18 to 20 a day in the past week. Our Board of Health continues to monitor local businesses for compliance, etc."

The latest town-by-town report labeled 97 Massachusetts communities as high-risk, up from 81 last week. The majority of the state's cities and towns reported rising test rates.

State officials announced 49 more deaths Thursday. The seven-day average of hospitalized coronavirus patients increased to 1,324, compared to 963 last Friday.

>>MA Reports New High 6,477 Coronavirus Cases, 5% Positive Rate

Gov. Charlie Baker drew a difference between this surge and last spring at a news conference Thursday. People over age 70 are being hospitalized at much lower rates this fall, and hospitalizations have been growing at about 2 to 3 percent per day — in the spring, Massachusetts added some 4,000 hospitalizations in a little over a month.

There were 261 confirmed coronavirus patients in intensive care Thursday. In late April, there were over 1,000 such patients.

Baker said that doctors have new tools to treat the virus, including drugs like remdesivir, and convalescent plasma. But he also added that hospitals will almost certainly face additional strain in the coming weeks and months. Officials announced a new field hospital would open in Lowell within a month, and another may open in the southeastern part of the state.

To date, there have been 232,264 cases and 10,637 deaths statewide since the pandemic began. Officials estimate there are 49,225 active cases in Massachusetts.