Wellesley Coronavirus Cases Increase, Town Remains 'Low Risk'

WELLESLEY, MA — Wellesley's COVID-19 cases increased over the last two weeks, but not enough to bump the town off of the state's "low risk" community list. Wellesley reported 11 new COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, bringing the town's total case count to 299.

Wellesley is considered a "low risk" community because it has an average daily incidence rate of 2.6 cases per every 100,000 residents.

In the last two weeks, Wellesley tested 12,542 people for a total of 45,960 tests administered in town. Twelve tests have come back positive over the last two weeks. The town's percent positive rate over the last two weeks stayed at 0.10 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.