82°
In Springfield, the 14-day COVID-19 positive test rate is down significantly from a high of 3.4 percent in the city in mid-June. The most recent test rate was 2.7 percent.
In Massachusetts, the goal is that by December the state will have less than 5 percent of COVID-19 tests come back positive. On Friday, Aug. 5, Gov. Charlie Baker reported the state’s 7-day positive test rate was at 1.8 percent, down from 2.2 percent just a week ago. (Massachusetts does not provide 7-day positive test rates for municipalities, only 14-day rates.)
Every Hampden County community met that 5 percent goal in the most recent reporting period released by the governor’s office on Wednesday, Aug. 5 - except for Russell. The rural town has a 9.5 percent 14-day COVID-19 positive test rate - up from 6.3 percent last reporting period. In small communities like Russell, though, just a few people getting sick can skew data to make things sound worse than they are. For example, Russell has a high positive test rate, but only 18 people in the town have contracted COVID-19 since Jan. 1.
In Chicopee, the positive test rate went up for the fourth week in a row: from 3.3 percent on July 29, to 3.8 on Aug. 5, the most recent information available.
After going up for three weeks, Wilbraham’s test rate went down from 1.5 on July 29 to 0.9 on Aug. 5.
West Springfield’s positive test rate had been on the decline, but jumped a bit since the last reporting period - it’s now 2.3 percent.
Since Jan. 1 Massachusetts has had a total of 112,459 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and administered 1.72 million tests. The total number of COVID-19 deaths in the state is 8,514 people.
Here is a breakdown of local COVID-19 data: presenting the total number of infections recorded per community since the beginning of the pandemic and the 14-day positive test rate, percent in parenthesis ( ), for the cities and towns in your community:
CLICK HERE FOR A GRAPHIC SHOWING POSITIVE RATES SINCE JULY 17.
Agawam: 506 (2.4)
Blandford: <5 (0)
Brimfield: 9 (1.1)
Chester: <5 (0)
Chicopee: 541 (3.8)
East Longmeadow: 282 (1)
Granville: 12 (0)
Hampden: 99 (0)
Holland: 10 (4)
Holyoke: 1,007 (2.3)
Ludlow: 135 (0.8)
Monson: 44 (0.4)
Montgomery: <5 (0)
Palmer: 58 (1.3)
Russell: 18 (9.5)
Southwick: 57 (0.4)
Springfield: 3,076 (2.7)
Tolland: <5 (0)
Wales: 5 (2)
West Springfield: 411 (2.3)
Westfield: 493 (2.2)
Wilbraham: 234 (0.9).
Click here to follow Daily Voice Hampden and receive free news updates.
