Watertown Coronavirus Cases Increase, Town Deemed 'Moderate Risk'

WATERTOWN, MA — Watertown's COVID-19 cases increased in the last two weeks — the town is deemed a "moderate risk" community by the state. Watertown reported 21 new COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, bringing the total case count to 471.

Watertown is considered a "moderate risk" community because it has an average daily incidence rate of 4.5 cases per every 100,000 residents.

In the last two weeks, Watertown tested 3,870 people for a total of 21,509 tests administered in town. Twenty-eight tests have come back positive over the last two weeks. The town's percent positive rate over the last two weeks increased to 0.72 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.

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. Sixty-three communities were designated high-risk in the new town-by-town data released by the state Wednesday.

View the state's interactive COVID-19 map.