August 12, 2020
Worcester, five other Central Mass. communities make at-risk coronavirus designation
Photo | Grant Welker
A store on Pleasant Street in Worcester advising customers to wear a mask.
Worcester and Framingham, the two most populous Central Massachusetts communities, along with four others have made a new state advisory list of communities at elevated risk for coronavirus infections.
Those two cities — along with Auburn, Charlton, Marlborough and Maynard — are six of more than 30 cities and towns across Massachusetts the Gov. Charlie Baker Administration said Tuesday are being highlighted as part of a new initiative to stop the spread of the pandemic now that numbers, while still relatively low, have been creeping up across the state in the past few weeks.
Cities and towns in those most at-risk categories have at least four cases per 100,000.
In Worcester, the rate is 5.6 per 100,000 in the most recent two weeks. Charlton had the second worst rate in Central Massachusetts at 5.1 per 100,000.
Four compact cities just north of Boston made it into the most severe category for communities where rates exceed eight per 100,000. Those cities were Chelsea at 18.0, along with Everett, Lynn and Revere.
Higher-risk communities will receive additional state support to fight the pandemic's spread. Those efforts include additional testing, tracing and quarantining, technical support for prevention efforts, along with business-focused endeavors, including increased enforcement for businesses to follow pandemic health guidelines and cease-and-desist orders or suspension or cancelation of liquor licenses, if necessary, for those in violation.
The city of Worcester has tallied more than 5,500 coronavirus cases, and Worcester County reached 1,000 coronavirus deaths on Saturday, becoming the fourth Massachusetts county to do so. That toll was reached in about four and a half months.
The Worcester metro area, which includes Worcester County and Connecticut's Windham County, has the nation's 18th worst death rate at 1.07 deaths per 1,000, according to a tally by The New York Times.
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