Medford Coronavirus Cases Rise, City Remains At Moderate Risk

MEDFORD, MA — About half of Massachusetts communities, including Medford, had falling or steady positive coronavirus test rates over the last two weeks, according to new town-by-town data released by the state Wednesday.

The positive test rate over the last two weeks increased in 176— or 50.1 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate fell in 68 — or 19.4 percent — communities and held steady in the remaining 148.

Medford's case count over the last 14 days was 50, a higher relative change in case count over previous weeks, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 1,242. The city conducted 13,696 tests over the past two weeks, 58 of which came back positive. There have been 57,414 tests conducted overall in Medford.

Medford's percent positive rate over the last two weeks held steady at 0.42 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.

The state continues to label Medford a "yellow" community, a designation given to cities and towns that average 4-8 cases per 100,000 people daily. Forty communities were designated high-risk, or "red," in the new town-by-town data released by the state Wednesday, up from 23 the week before.

State regulations prohibit high-risk communities, along with those considered high risk in the previous two updates, from moving on to the next phase of reopening. Towns were marked high risk, or red, if they reported more than eight confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks.

View the state's interactive COVID-19 map.