BOSTON (WWLP) – The confidence boost in Massachusetts with COVID-19 restrictions continues to ease, which means the state is following guidance to get back to normal.
This week, restaurants are back to full capacity, but not every community is in the clear just yet.
On Thursday, Chicopee, Hadley, Ludlow, and Springfield were listed as the high-risk communities in western Massachusetts, according to the state’s COVID-19 Health Report released every Thursday.
There are now 19 western Massachusetts communities at moderate risk (yellow zone) and only for at low-risk (green zone). But things are trending in the right direction in Southampton which has been bumped to moderate risk after being in the red last week.
22News spoke with a resident from one of these red zone communities who said now is not the time to get too comfortable.
“I feel like we shouldn’t let our guard down until the numbers start to go down as well, you see the numbers rising people dying every day,” Xavier Lozada of Springfield said. “You gotta be safe. But at the end of the day the harder we work the quicker we’ll go through this.”
As of right now, there are more than 1,400 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts. By county, Hampden County has 104 new cases, Hampshire County with 66, and Franklin and Berkshire County have 8 new cases each.
