All of Massachusetts except for Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard are now considered low risk for COVID-19, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dukes County is now the only county in the state listed in the medium risk category, with the rest of the state low risk. That's a dramatic swing from a month ago, when all but two counties in Massachusetts were considered high risk.
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The news is good across the rest of New England as well, with not one county listed as high risk and only a handful of counties outside of Maine in the medium risk category.
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This doesn't come as a total surprise, especially considering the recent decrease in school cases, test positivity rate and COVID wastewater levels in recent weeks.
State health officials reported 1,700 new COVID-19 cases and six more deaths on Thursday. The state's seven-day average positivity was at 5.53%. Both metrics were about the same as they were a week ago.
But after increasing for months, the number of new cases in Massachusetts schools declined for the fifth straight week. The total of 1,704 cases was a decrease of over 50% from last Thursday's report, when a total of 4,216 cases were identified.
What about the rest of New England?
Other than Maine, COVID levels are way down across the rest of New England as well.
Maine still has eight counties in the medium risk category, with the rest of the state considered low risk.
Vermont's Essex County is at medium risk, with the rest of the state falling into the low risk category.
In New Hampshire, only the far northern county of Coos is in the medium category, with the rest of the state considered low risk.
All of Rhode Island is now considered low risk, while Connecticut still has three counties in the medium risk category.
Residents in counties with high risk are urged to wear masks indoors in public and on public transportation, to stay up to date with vaccines and to get tested if they have symptoms, according to the CDC.
Residents in areas with medium risk are encouraged to wear a mask if they have symptoms, a positive test or exposure to someone with COVID-19. Anyone at high risk for severe illness should also consider wearing a mask indoors in public and taking additional precautions, the CDC says.
