For the second straight week, the Tri-Town saw a slight decline in new covid cases in the week leading up to Oct. 21. However, new cases were still much higher than at any time over the summer.

Among the towns, Marion had 22 new cases, down from 29 the week before; Mattapoisett had 14, down from 20; and Rochester had seven, down from eight. In total, the Tri-Town had 43 new cases of covid after tallying 57 the previous week.

Over the last four weeks, the Tri-Town has averaged over 46 new cases per week.

At Tri-Town schools, the number of new cases was difficult to determine because of a typo in last week’s data that led to the number of cases that have occurred at Old Hammondtown School being underreported.

In total, there have been 99 confirmed cases of covid reported by ORR schools with 87 of them coming from Tri-Town elementary schools. Of the 99, between eight and 11 were recorded this week, the lowest weekly total since the district began reporting covid data on Sept. 24.

The recent spike in cases in the Tri-Town comes despite high local vaccination rates, particularly among residents of Marion and Mattapoisett.

This week, Marion became the first of the three towns to reach a single-dose vaccination rate of 90%, while Mattapoisett lags behind slightly with 88%. Both towns have 81% of residents fully vaccinated.

In Rochester, however, vaccination rates have largely stagnated near the county average. About 67% of Rochester residents have had at least one dose of a covid vaccine, with 62% fully vaccinated.

As of Oct. 19, Plymouth County had an average of 69% of residents with at least one dose and 62% fully vaccinated.

OR Junior High School reported a full-vaccination rate of 58.2% on Oct. 22, while OR High School is at 75.9%. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requires that a school reach 80% fully vaccinated before mask mandates can be lifted.

State covid data is released every Thursday evening and ORR covid data is released every Friday evening.