Hardest-hit cities trending higher
Massachusetts cities hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic are showing 14day positivity rates well above the state average, according to new data that’s prompted the Baker administration to boost testing in several of those communities.
The state’s 14-day positivity rate was 2.25% as of Wednesday. By comparison, Chelsea — which has the state’s highest cumulative infection rate since January of 7,846 per 100,000 residents — reported 7.46% percent positivity. Lawrence, which has the third-highest infection rate of 4,127, posted a rate of 7.05%.
“We’re going in the right direction. We’re just going in the right direction slower than the rest of the state,” Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera said.
Lawrence and Chelsea are joining Everett, Fall River, Lowell, Lynn, Marlboro and New Bedford in getting a testing boost from the state over the next month. While those communities represent 9% of the state’s population, they’ve accounted for 27% of the COVID-19 infections detected in the past two weeks, Gov. Charlie Baker said. Testing in those municipalities has also dropped by 39% since the end of April.
Rivera, who at one point aimed to swab 1,000 a day in his city, chalked the decline in testing up to “a false sense of security” as new infections remain low in Massachusetts and “early stigma” about how hard it was to get tested.
In Everett, which posted a two-week positivity rate of 4.47%, Mayor Carlo DeMaria said, “The more testing that is done, the more we can stop the spread.”
But DeMaria attributed concerns over Everett’s numbers in part to the state’s method of calculating infection rates, saying that while his city has 1,770 cases, “we are ranked one of the most vulnerable communities because of the per-capita approach.”
As Baker looks to boost testing, lower demand has led some sites to close — including Cambridge Health Alliance locations in Cambridge and Malden. In Brockton, which has the second-highest cumulative infection rate of 4,330 and a 14-day positivity rate of 4.87%, Mayor Robert Sullivan said drive-up testing at the high school has been scaled back to three halfdays a week.
“There is certainly a need, but the trend is being positive,” Sullivan said.
Roughly 80 communities have positivity rates higher than the state’s average. The highest were Russell with 11.54%, Granville with 9.38% and Monterey with 9.09%, all small Western Massachusetts towns with just a handful of cases each, according to the data. Of the other cities targeted for extra testing, Fall River had a positivity rate of 6.17%, New Bedford had 5.7%, Lynn had 4.81%, Lowell had 4.1% and Marlborough had 2.7%.