PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Starting tonight, all public parks and fields in Plymouth will be closed daily from dusk until dawn in response to the town’s high risk status for Eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE.
Athletic leagues and other organizations using public parks and fields will be prohibited from continuing outdoor activities beyond dusk, town officials said in a statement on Friday.
Signs will be placed at all public parks and fields enforcing the message, officials said.
Also across Massachusetts, eight new communities are now considered at high risk of West Nile Virus: Boston, Abington, Brockton, East Bridgewater, Marion, Mattapoisett, Rochester and Whitman. So far this year, there have been two human and no animal cases of West Nile Virus.
In Plymouth, the recent EEE infection diagnosed in a horse exposed in Plymouth initially raised the town’s EEE risk level to high, officials said.
There have also been EEE-infected mosquitoes previously …