More Than One Third Of Waltham Residents Are Fully Vaccinated

WALTHAM, MA — More than a third of Waltham residents — 39 percent or 25,855 people — have gotten at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, as of April 15, according to state data released Thursday.

Nearly a quarter, or 23 percent, of residents have been fully vaccinated.

Waltham 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. The city's percent positivity was 0.90 percent, down just a smidge from 0.91 percent in last week's report. The city had 181 cases in the past two-week period, down from 191 last week.

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

Waltham'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.