Gloucester, Lynnfield Deemed High-Risk For Coronavirus
LYNNFIELD (CBS) - Lynnfield residents are not happy the town is once again in the red zone on the state's high risk COVID-19 map. "It's disappointing," said Meghan Hamner.
The city is one of 14 communities added to the COVID-19 map on Thursday. That means 77 municipalities are now considered high risk for coronavirus infections.
"I kind of expected the spike, but I feel like people are being fairly smart," said resident Kira Spencer.
Gloucester is also now a high risk community as well. It's average daily rate jumped from 6.7 to 19.2.
"When I saw it I was shocked. I was very disappointed. Everybody has been taking such care, everybody's been working so hard," said David Hepworth of Gloucester.
Gloucester's Health Director Karin Carroll says the city's level changed because of a spike in cases that was connected to an event over Columbus Day Weekend.
"It was a social gathering in the community and you know that's how we know it spreads people in close contact," said Carroll.
Carroll declined to provide details about the gathering, but says no citations or fines were issued.
"We had our contact tracing team of nurses working around the clock for a couple of weeks, being in touch with people, making sure they understood the importance of quarantining, isolating, all of those things," Carroll said.
Carroll says increased free testing is already showing their positive cases declining, saying, "we think this is a promising sign."
She expects the city to be out of the red within the next few weeks.
