New covid cases level off but remain above summer levels

Nov 18, 2021

New covid cases have leveled off from an early October spike, but remain above the late-summer average despite very high vaccination rates in much of the Tri-Town.

A covid outbreak was also detected recently at Mattapoisett’s Center School leading the district to transfer one class to remote learning on Nov. 18. The school had a total of 13 new covid cases in the week leading up to Nov. 19, however, it is not clear how many of those came from the class that is now learning remotely. Center School has reported the most covid cases of any ORR school, accounting for about a third of all new cases reported by the district.

In the Tri-Town as a whole, Marion had eight new cases, Mattapoisett had 16 and Rochester had 14. In total, the Tri-Town had 38 new cases of covid in the week leading up to Nov. 18, after tallying 37 the previous week, according to state covid data.

Over the last four weeks, the Tri-Town has averaged 32.5 new cases per week.

Meanwhile, single-dose vaccination rates increased significantly for the second straight week in Marion and Mattapoisett. The spike follows a recent Centers for Disease Control announcement week that made children between the ages of 5 and 11 eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine — the first covid-19 vaccine approved for that age group.

Marion’s single-dose vaccination rate has risen by 7% in less than a month, reaching 97% this week. The town’s full-vaccination percentage remained at 83%.

In Mattapoisett, the first-dose rate is up 6% from last month, and is now at 94%. The full vaccination rate rose by 1% this week to 82%.

Rochester vaccination rates have also increased this month, but not as quickly as the other towns. The single-dose rate is up 4% from Oct. 21 to 71% while the full-vaccination rate sits at 63%.

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