COVID-19 testing capacity is being expanded in the largest city in western Massachusetts.
The city of Springfield is planning to open a COVID-19 testing site at the Putnam Vocational Technical High School. It will be for city residents who want to get tested whether they have symptoms or not, according to the city’s Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris.
Right now, the only other testing site is at Eastfield Mall and there are long lines there and individuals waiting, said Caulton-Harris.
Since the testing site in the Eastfield Mall parking lot opened last fall as part of the state’s Stop The Spread initiative, more than 118 000 people have been tested there free of charge, according to Caulton-Harris.
The Baker administration has unveiled a map identifying locations where Massachusetts residents may roll up their sleeves for the COVID-19 vaccine and not one of them is located anywhere near Fall River, New Bedford, or Cape Cod. It s outrageous, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell told WBSM s Barry Richard today. I m at a loss. When I first saw the map, I thought they must have made some sort of mistake. But there s no mistake. How on earth do you justify that decision?
Mitchell said New Bedford and Fall River are cash-strapped cities with a high rates of COVID-19. Anyone from the low-income cities who wants to get the shot will have to travel to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, a site that s about a 50-minute drive from the Whaling City.
MetroWest and Greater Milford, along with the state in general, are coping with an ongoing surge in coronavirus cases.
More than 200 of the state’s 351 cities and towns are now at high risk for local spread of COVID-19.
In this region, most cities and towns are in the state’s coronavirus red zone, including Framingham, Milford, Marlborough, Hudson, Ashland, Holliston, Southborough, Bellingham, Franklin, Hopedale, Shrewsbury, Wayland, Uxbridge and Millis.
Most others are in the yellow zone, including Dover, Sherborn, Hopkinton, Natick, Weston, Mendon, Northborough, Sudbury, Westborough and Medway.
Area positivity rates, which signify the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who got a positive result, range from a low of 2.25% in Weston to a high of 10.44% in Bellingham. For context, the World Health Organization recommends governments maintain a positivity rate of 5% or lower for at least two weeks before reopening.