Health & Fitness
Waltham's Coronavirus Risk Level Rises To High
Last week the city's coronavirus risk level rose to moderate. This week it's in the red along with 40 other communities.
WALTHAM, MA — Waltham is now considered a high-risk city, according to weekly state data released Wednesday.
The watch-city is among 40 communities across the commonwealth that has been designated high-risk, up from just 23 last week. Waltham now falls in the red zone with an average rate of 9.2 cases per 100,000, up from 4.5 last week according to state data.
State officials have said that high-risk communities, along with those considered high-risk in the past 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.
Find out what's happening in Walthamfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Waltham's percent positivity is 0.53 percent up from last week's 0.29 percent. Compare that to neighboring Newton's, which was 0.17 percent. Newton had hovered in the yellow zone for the past two weeks before it just dipped back into green last week and stayed there this week. Statewide, the positive test rate was 1.1 percent, up from 0.8 percent in early September.
Wednesday, 509 people tested positive for the coronavirus and officials reported 19 new deaths across the state. There have been 9,342 deaths and 133,868 confirmed cases statewide since the pandemic reached the Bay State in March. In Waltham, 1,461 people have tested positive for the virus since March and 79 people have died.
Find out what's happening in Walthamfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
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.
The positive test rate over the past two weeks increased in about half of the communities in the state.
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