Waltham Coronavirus Positivity Rate On The Decline

WALTHAM, MA — The coronavirus positive test rate is on the decline across the commonwealth and in Waltham. Health officials are still encouraging people to remain vigilant and to wear masks and wash hands frequently. But the decline is a hopeful sign.

Waltham stayed in the yellow, or moderate risk, category for the coronavirus after just coming out of the red zone earlier this month, but the city's positive test rate fell from 2.46 percent to 1.68 percent this week —lower than the state average.

The seven-day average positive test rate for the state fell to 2.65 percent, the lowest level since early November. Health officials say positive coronavirus 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.

Statewide case counts, hospitalizations and deaths also all fell.

To date, there have been 523,258 cases and 14,964 confirmed deaths statewide since the pandemic began. Officials estimate that there were 50,344 active cases as of Thursday. There were 2,213 new confirmed cases and 61 deaths Thursday.

In Waltham, the total number of people who have tested positive for the virus is 4,512 as of Feb. 9, according to state data, including 344 who tested positive during the past two weeks.

For the two-week period ending Feb. 9, there were 22,905 tests that happened in Waltham.

The decline comes as those who are 75 years old and older were allowed one companion —of any age— to accompany them to their appointment and get vaccinated themselves if they register for an appointment.

Gov. Charlie Baker said as of Thursday that the state will have distributed more than 1 million vaccination shots over the past two months of the rollout.