Updated on December 18, 2020 at 11:25 am
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For the first time, more than half of Massachusetts communities, 187, are considered at the highest risk for transmitting the new coronavirus, according to the latest weekly community-level data on the pandemic.
The new total overtakes last week s record of 158 towns and cities in the report s red zone last week, which was itself a massive 61-community increase over the week before. The numbers, from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, have been increasing steadily for weeks, as have coronavirus case numbers, amid a new surge in coronavirus cases. (See this week s full red zone list below.)
Standard-Times
BOSTON The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported 4,985 additional COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the statewide total to 297,301.
Thursday s report also added 44 new deaths to the state s total, which is now 11,305 people since the start of the pandemic.
An estimated 76,215 cases are active across the state, according to the report.
New Bedford, with 1,749 cases in the last 14 days, remains deeply in the red, high risk zone. The average daily incidence rate is 111.5 per 100,000. To compare, Fall River s is 109.2 per 100,000, and Lawrence is at 204.8. New Bedford s test positivity rate is 11.48%, compared to Fall River s 13.07% and Lawrence s 17.3%.
As of Thursday, 1,871 patients with confirmed coronavirus cases were hospitalized in Massachusetts, of which 383 were reported to be in an intensive care unit.
Three local businesses are closing for the winter during what their owners expect to be a grim few months of the pandemic. Whether other seasonal closures will follow in Yellow Springs remains to be seen.
Peach’s Grill closed in mid-November after a kitchen worker tested positive for the virus, while Ye Olde Trail Tavern followed suit this Monday, though no positive cases have been reported there. And Import House on Dayton Street closed last Friday, following a confirmed case that morning. All three businesses are owned by villagers Don Beard and Christine Monroe-Beard.
“Things are going to go south real quick,” Beard said in a recent phone call, reflecting on the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Greene County and Ohio.
Friends of Jack Donates Toys to Over 400 SouthCoast Families
As I pulled up to the
Friends of Jack headquarters, I was pleased to see that one of the Mattapoisett Fire engines was on the scene (but for a good reason). The garage doors opened up and there stood a mountain of toys, wrapped up in bags, ready to be delivered to their rightful families. Santa s workshop is the closest metaphor to describe what I saw.
Gazelle/Townsquare Media
Each year, Jill Fearons, CEO of the Friends of Jack Foundation, gets together a list of toys from each town and city s police or fire chief and then goes shopping for families from New Bedford, Mattapoisett, Rochester, Fairhaven, and every other SouthCoast community.