As of Dec. 24, there had been 83 new coronavirus cases in town over the past week, according to the state’s latest report.

That’s a decrease from the prior week, in which there was a record 112 new cases. But cases are expected to increase rapidly following family gatherings on the Christmas holiday.

Wareham’s average daily incidence rate was 52.3 cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days. Given Wareham’s population, this means there were about 12.03 new cases each day.

Wareham has also seen a percent positivity rate — or the percentage of covid-19 tests performed that come back positive — of 7.28 percent over the last 14 days. 

Although the number of cases and the percent positivity rate have fallen over the past week, Wareham is still classified “red” per the state’s guidelines — the same category the town has fallen into since Dec. 3.

A week ago, the state’s public health report indicated Wareham was seeing roughly 11.55 new cases each day and had a percent positivity rate of 8.26 percent.

As of Dec. 21, Wareham Public Schools reported eight students and two employees who had tested positive for covid-19, along with 25 students and 11 employees currently quarantined.

The elder facilities in town were not reporting any current staff or resident cases of covid-19, as of Dec. 27.