The state health and agriculture departments will carry out “aerial spraying” in parts of Plymouth County as well as “truck-mounted spraying” in parts of Worcester County. It also noted that 10 communities in the state have “been raised to high or critical risk” for EEE, caused by a virus that is spread by certain types of mosquitoes. EEE can cause a fever and brain swelling, while about a third of people infected with it die, officials have said.
Eight communities in the aerial spray zone include Carver, Halifax, Kingston, Middleborough, Plymouth, Plympton, Rochester, and Wareham, the health agency said. Five communities that are in the truck spray zone include Douglas, Dudley, Oxford, Sutton, and Uxbridge, it added. “Coverage of the entire area at risk in Plymouth County may take several nights of spraying.
The truck-based spray in Worcester County will occur over multiple nights,” the release said, adding that spraying will start at dusk and end by dawn each day. For people who are in one of the spray zones, they should “assume that your area is being sprayed each night until you check the spray map and confirm that your area has been sprayed,” the department said. Earlier this month, the Department of Health announced the first human EEE virus infection in Massachusetts for this year on Aug.
16, occurring in a male in his 80s who was exposed to it in Worcester County. Jennifer Callahan, Oxford’s town manager, wrote in a memo that the family of the ma.