There was good news regarding new cases of coronavirus for the week ending Jan. 12.
The number of new cases fell both locally and statewide.
In the 10 communities in The Sun Chronicle area — which include Attleboro, Foxboro, Mansfield, Norfolk, North Attleboro, Norton, Plainville, Rehoboth, Seekonk and Wrentham — the numbers declined by 17.47%, or 47 cases.
In the week ending Jan. 5 there were 269 new cases and in the week ending Jan. 12 there were 222.
Cases only increased in one community and that was Rehoboth, where they went up by five. In all others they remained the same or went down.
Statewide, cases declined by 7.09%, or 715.
In the week ending Jan. 5 there were 10,075 new cases and in the week ending Jan. 12 there were 9,360.
In The Sun Chronicle area there were 3,042 coronavirus tests given with 473, or 15.54%, coming back positive. That’s up from 15.29% in the week ending Jan. 5.
It was one year ago the area and state set records for new cases.
Locally, that number was 3,463 with a positive test percentage of 24.07%.
With just 222 new cases in the week ending Jan. 12, that’s a decline of 93.58% from a year ago.
Statewide the number of new cases was 132,557.
With 9,360 new cases this week, the decline from one year ago is 92.93%. The number of new cases and percentages are likely off to some degree because of home testing kits.
A number of positive coronavirus cases found at home may not get reported to health authorities and do not make their way into the official statistics.
However, it is unlikely the numbers unreported would come anywhere close to the numbers in January of 2022.
George W. Rhodes can be reached at 508-236-0432.
