Newton Sees Highest Number Of Monthly COVID-19 Cases Since April

NEWTON, MA — Cases of the coronavirus in Newton have been on a steady rise since the summer. Much of that is because people have been less cautious, according to health experts.

Newton Public Health Commissioner Deborah Youngblood said she understands that people are tired of dealing with the demands of dealing with the pandemic, but residents need to keep up the safety precautions.

"I urge our residents to push past the weariness with COVID-19 precautions and remain vigilant," Youngblood said. "In particular we are seeing transmission when people visit each other in private residences. We all miss our friends and family but we need to wear face coverings and remain 6 feet apart with anyone not in our household or selected social pod."

Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 28, there were 131 people who tested positive for the virus. September saw 94 cases. August saw 78. In June the city saw the fewest people test positive at 16 and in April the case counts spiked to 507.

March and May both saw a little more than 120 cases each.

Since March, 1,113 people in Newton have tested positive for the virus in Newton and of those 140 people have died. As of Thursday, there were 5.4 people per 100,000 who had contracted the virus in the past 14 days, according to state data. This keeps the city in the moderate risk zone for the virus.

Newton had more than 10 cases come from a long-term care facility and or institution of higher education with more than 10 confirmed cases in the past 14 days, and these make up more than 30 percent of the total cases for the municipality for that time, the state data said.

Boston College, which is partially in Newton, has reported 22 cases of the virus since Oct. 19.

Meanwhile, the number of people who tested positive for the virus in Massachusetts surged past 150,000 on Wednesday, and Thursday the state reported more than 1,000 new confirmed cases for the sixth day in a row. Thursday the state reported 150,498 people had tested positive for the coronavirus since March. The spike in the commonwealth has prompted neighboring states to cast a wary eye on travel here, with Connecticut and New Jersey this week adding Massachusetts to their coronavirus travel advisory lists.

Jenna Fisher is a news reporter for Patch. Got a tip? She can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna). Have a something you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how .