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PEABODY REPORTS NEW VIRUS CASES, ADDITIONAL DEATH
BY GAYLA CAWLEY| August 26, 2020
Peabody reported new cases and an additional death on Wednesday to bring the city’s COVID-19 death toll to 177.
New coronavirus cases were also reported in Revere, Saugus and Swampscott.
Six new cases were reported in Peabody on Wednesday. The city now has 1,232 cases and 937 people have recovered from the virus, according to the health department.
Revere reported 16 new cases to bring the city’s caseload to 2,338. Ninety-four people have died and 2,078 have recovered, according to the city website.
According to the state Department of Public Health, 12 new cases have been diagnosed in Saugus and Swampscott has had four new cases since last week.
Saugus now has 638 cases and 39 people have died. Swampscott has 157 cases and 10 deaths, according to DPH data.
Numbers remained the same in Lynnfield (109 cases, 11 deaths), Marblehead (262 cases, 30 deaths) and Nahant (52 cases, six deaths) on Wednesday and were not updated in Lynn.
As of Tuesday, Lynn had 4,494 cases and 113 deaths. According to the DPH, Lynn’s positive test rate dropped to 6.08 percent over the past 14 days.
Despite the drop, Lynn now officially has the highest positive test rate in the state, which is 4.6 percent higher than the state average of 1.3. Chelsea is not far behind, with a rate of 6.07 percent, according to the DPH.
However, it’s a toss-up for which community has the worst outbreak, as Chelsea’s average daily incidence rate of 31.9 cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days far exceeds Lynn’s, which is 16.7.
Both communities continue to be shaded red on the state’s COVID-19 map, which keeps them in the “higher risk” category in terms of virus outbreaks.
Revere, which has a positive test rate of 5.51 percent and average daily incidence rate of 20.4, has also kept its “higher risk” designation this week.