Covid Numbers For Berkshire County
According to the latest information by the Department of Public Health, the state considers Adams, Lee, and Williamstown to be high risk for COVID-19 transmission.
Dalton, North Adams, and Pittsfield are considered moderate risk, and Great Barrington is considered lower risk. All other communities in the county are considered the lowest risk for infection.
Williamstown ranks first among Massachusetts communities for most COVID-19 tests administered per resident. The reason for being so high on testing is that Williams College bumps up the testing rate for the town to 103,573.5 tests per 100,000 residents, a rate five times the state average.
The state’s high-risk list which now shows 59 of the 351 Massachusetts communities, has included Adams and Williamstown for three consecutive weeks, while Lee returned to the list after it was classified as moderate risk for two weeks.
While the town has a test positivity rate of 0.39 percent for the past 14 days, testing at the college, 8,164 tests in the past 14 days yielded three positive results has driven down that rate.
The 3.56 percent test positivity rate in Adams and 5.07 percent rate in Lee both exceed the state average of 2.30 percent.
For towns that have a population below 10,000, the state considers any community with more than 25 total cases in the past two-week period to be at high risk for transmission.
The DPH says that Berkshire County as a whole saw 34 new COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, for a new total of 5,989 cases, as of 4/16/21, 282 people have died of COVID-19 in the county. A week ago, the death total was 281 and the case total was 5,770. A month ago, the death total was 266 and the case total was 4,998.