COVID increases on Cape Cod with nearly 1.5K new cases in 14 days

Cynthia McCormick, Cape Cod Times
·3 min read
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New cases of COVID-19 continue to increase on Cape Cod, but hospitalizations remain level and coronavirus fatalities low, state public health officials said Thursday.

The state Department of Public Health said in its weekly report that Barnstable County on Cape Cod saw approximately 1,440 new cases of COVID-19 during its last 14-day reporting period, up 270 cases from the approximately 1,170 cases reported for that time period May 12.

In its daily report on Thursday, the DPH said there were 4,957 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus in Massachusetts, for a total of 1,687,023 since the pandemic began.

Monomoy school district float nurse Amy Sullivan processes a swab from a student who took a rapid COVID-19 test in this December 2021 file photo.
Monomoy school district float nurse Amy Sullivan processes a swab from a student who took a rapid COVID-19 test in this December 2021 file photo.

State public health officials also counted 680 new probable cases of coronavirus in its daily report, for a total of 148,642.

The seven-day testing positivity rate for the state is 9.35%.

The DPH daily report Thursday said Barnstable County had 152 new cases of coronavirus for a total of 38,238 since the pandemic began.

The testing positivity rate for Barnstable County during the latest two-week reporting period, from May 1 to May 14, is 10.62%, state public health officials said.

They said that as of Wednesday, Massachusetts hospitals had 866 patients with COVID-19, of whom 65% or 567 were fully vaccinated and of whom 32% or 277 were being treated primarily for a COVID-19-related illness.

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Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis had 24 patients with coronavirus as of Wednesday, including one in intensive care, while Falmouth Hospital had three patients with COVID-19, none of whom were in the ICU.

The numbers are similar to what the DPH reported last week, when the two hospitals had a combined 28 patients with COVID-19.

State public health officials said in their Thursday daily report that COVID-19 had taken the lives of 14 people with confirmed cases of the illness and one person with a probable case.

Since the pandemic began, COVID-19 has accounted for the deaths of 19,315 people with confirmed cases and for 1,153 people with probable cases.

The DPH Thursday daily report said there were no new fatalities on Cape Cod.

The weekly report said four people on Cape Cod died of COVID-19 during the two-week period from May 1 to May 14.

So far, 586 people in Barnstable County have died of COVID-19.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, total numbers and two-week testing positivity rates for towns on Cape Cod follow.

Barnstable (288; 9,954; 10.34%); Bourne (123; 3,702; 9.41%); Brewster (75; 1,494; 8.88%); Chatham (36; 846; 11.71%); Dennis (100; 2,366; 11.59%); Eastham (39; 507; 18.87%); Falmouth (210; 4,602; 10.15%); Harwich (103; 2,132; 12.06%): Mashpee (93; 2,593; 10.56%); Orleans (41; 792; 13.35%); Provincetown (less than five; 459; 0.61%): Sandwich (143; 3,623; 10.90%); Truro (less than five; 182; 2.82%); Wellfleet (8; 279; 10.26%); and Yarmouth (176; 4,554; 11.82%).

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: COVID-19 on Cape Cod: Mid-May cases increase, deaths low