Covid-19: Where Are The Hot Spots? Town Infection Rates, Trends - Hampshire County, August

Positive COVID-19 test rates in Amherst, Easthampton, Granby, Northampton, South Hadley, and Williamsburg are at the highest they’ve been over the last four weeks, according to new state data.

The communities with the largest leap, from one week to the next, in positive COVID-19 test rates are Northampton and Williamsburg.
Photo Credit: *Wikimedia Commons: Todd Van Hoosear (photo illustration)*

Kristin Palpini

08/12/2020 9:40 a.m.

Meanwhile, Belchertown’s 14-day COVID-19 positive test rate is going down. The rate went from 3.6 percent to 2.7 percent in one week.

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. 7, 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 Hampshire County community met that 5 percent goal in the most recent reporting period released by the governor’s office on Wednesday, Aug. 5.

Still, the communities with the largest leap from one week to the next in positive COVID-19 test rates are Northampton and Williamsburg. Granby also experienced a surge. After two weeks with 0-percent positive, the rate went up to 3.4 in the most recent reporting period. In small towns, like Granby, rates can fluctuate wildly as a handful of sick people can make trends appear more dire than they are.

Northampton went from 0.9 percent on July 31 to 1.8 percent on Aug. 5.

Over the same time period, Williamsburg’s positive test rate went from 0.8 percent to 1.5 percent.

Higher rates in Easthampton, Amherst, and South Hadley were also reported, but are not as severe as what Northampton and Williamsburg are experiencing.

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.

Amherst: 115 (1.5)

Belchertown:125 (2.7)

Chesterfield: <5 (0)

Cummington: <5 (0)

Easthampton: 100 (2)

Goshen: 5 (0)

Granby: 38 (3.4)

Hadley: 45 (0)

Hatfield: 19 (1)

Huntington: 14 (0)

Middlefield: 0 (0)

Northampton: 304 (1.8)

Pelham: <5 (0)

Plainfield: <5 (0)

South Hadley: 176 (2)

Southampton: 33 (0.6)

Ware: 37 (1)

Westhampton: 5 (0)

Williamsburg: 13 (1.5)

Worthington: 0 (0).

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