Every week on the MA Department of Public Health releases numbers for how COVID-19 has impacted the state, and we try to highlight some of these numbers so the community is informed. Their numbers factor in the past week as well as the week before, giving 2 weeks worth of data.

The City of Lynn has seen over a month of rapidly growing numbers, indicating that the City is deep into a second wave of COVID-19. The average daily incidence rate per 100,000 over 14 days this week was 45.1;  the previous 3 weeks were 34.4, 25.7, & 17.3. The positivity rate this week was 7.48; the previous 3 weeks were 6.53%, 5.70%, & 4.26%. Last week there were 20,000 less total tests, indicating more people are getting tested every week. While this does indeed mean that case numbers will go up, the number to watch is positivity rate. The higher the positivity rate the more the virus is spreading, regardless of number of cases or tests.

The outlook for the nation is not much better. We currently have 10.6 million cases, with well over 120K+ new cases being reported daily for the past week. We only reached 9 million cases 2 weeks ago, and over the past week new records have been set almost daily. Just yesterday the United States reported 160,000 new cases, a world record for the 3rd day in a row. The death toll nationwide is at 243K, with close to 1,200 in the last 24 hours alone.

There are currently 109 communities in the yellow category, & 30 communities in the red category in Massachusetts. Last week there were 91 in the yellow and 16 in the red, the week before there were 77 in the yellow and 121 in the red. The reason for the drastic difference in the numbers of communities in these categories the two previous weeks was due to new classification systems being used by Mass DPH.

Communities with populations less than 10,000 residents, between 10,000 & 50,000 residents, & more than 50,000 residents have had new metrics applied to them. Their results fall into 4 color categories; grey, green, yellow, & red. Positivity rates & average daily cases will continue to be determined by two-week rolling average. Officials say the new categories help to make the community-specific data more nuanced, and better account for increases in cases in smaller communities. They will also incorporate examples where cases at colleges, nursing homes, or jails may push an entire community into the red category. The new metrics are as follows:

Below are the statistics for Lynn & the state.