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Of the 122 red Massachusetts communities, 18 are in Worcester County: Athol, Auburn, Bolton, Clinton, Fitchburg, Gardner, Hubbardston, Leicester, Leominster, Mendon, Milford, Northborough, Shrewsbury, Southborough, Webster, West Boylston, Westborough, and Worcester.
As of Thursday, Oct. 29, there are now 122 red municipalities reporting high numbers of new COVID-19 cases every day for the past 28 days. The “red” refers to the color-coded system Massachusetts is using to communicate where COVID-19 hotspots are in the state. Red signifies the highest case rate and highest risk of spreading the virus.
To be considered a red community, the town must have an average daily new COVID-19 case rate, over the last 14 days, of 8 or more per 100,000 people and this benchmark has to have been reached in the prior 2 weeks to the 14 days - 28 days of high daily case rates.
Massachusetts like many parts of the country is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 incidents as the economy reopens and children have gone back to school. Massachusetts moved to Phase 3 Step 2 of reopening the economy on Oct. 5. With this step, the state raised the cap on the number of people at events, restaurants, and gatherings in addition to other expansions.
Some communities, such as Webster, have had to roll back their economies to Phase 3 Step 1 in an effort to curb the surge.
The following is a list of the average daily COVID-19 rates per 100,000 people per Worcester County community as of Thursday, Oct. 29 (red cities and towns are in bold):
Ashburnham 8
Athol 8.4
Auburn 7.4
Barre 5.1
Berlin 0
Blackstone 7.9
Bolton 9.9
Boylston 3.2
Brookfield 0
Charlton 4.1
Clinton 12.7
Douglas 6.8
Dudley 3.5
East Brookfield 3.2
Fitchburg 21.4
Gardner 9.3
Grafton 5.4
Hardwick 0
Harvard 4.1
Holden 4.5
Hopedale 6.3
Hubbardston 9.2
Lancaster 4.2
Leicester 10.8
Leominster 17.1
Lunenburg 6.2
Mendon 8.6
Milford 10
Millbury 7.3
Millville 8
New Braintree 0
North Brookfield 3.1
Northborough 11
Northbridge 3.6
Oakham 3.4
Oxford 0
Paxton 5.8
Petersham 0
Phillipston 0
Princeton 8.8
Royalston 5.6
Rutland 3.2
Shrewsbury 8.2
Southborough 10.3
Southbridge 5.9
Spencer 1.2
Sterling 4.5
Sturbridge 6.2
Sutton 8
Upton 1.6
Uxbridge 4.2
Warren 0
Webster 15.8
West Boylston 8.2
West Brookfield 1.9
Westborough 8.7
Westminster 5.8
Winchendon 3.3
Worcester 14.4.
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