MA Town-By-Town COVID: Positivity Rate At Highest Point Since December
MASSACHUSETTS — Coronavirus cases remain on the rise in Massachusetts, and the state's positivity rate is now above 6 percent, the highest it's been since mid-December.
Positivity rates are still much lower than they were at the peak of the omicron wave in January, but have been steadily increasing since the end of March. According to state COVID-19 data, the seven-day positive test rate increased, from 5.04 percent last week to 6.17 percent this week.
Positivity test rates rose in more than 260 Massachusetts cities and towns. In Massachusetts, 262 communities saw the rate increase, 15 had no change, and 59 saw it drop, the public health department said.
Covid-19 case counts also rose in 249 Massachusetts communities, stayed the same in 24 and decreased in 63, state data showed.
The average number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Massachusetts is also up 22.5 percent since last week.
The seven-day average number of hospitalized patients was 494.9, up from 404 last week, according to the Department of Public Health. As of Wednesday, 547 Massachusetts residents were hospitalized with COVID-19.
There were also 4.4 deaths per day over the last week, up slightly from 4.3 a week ago.
Cases have been on the rise since the third week of March because of the omicron subvariant BA.2. Over the last month, hospitalizations also started heading in the wrong direction. Deaths however last week started to decrease again for the first time in two weeks, but rose again slightly.
The Department of Public Health on Thursday also reported 4,376 new coronavirus cases, 13 deaths and 13,187 vaccine doses administered.
The weekly average case count was 2,198.3 daily cases, up from 1,853.3 a week before. At the early January peak of the omicron surge, the state reported more than 23,000 average daily cases.
The latest state vaccine report showed the number of fully vaccinated residents rose to just under 5.37 million. Booster doses were given to about 3.01 million residents.
Community-Level Data
To use this map, zoom in and click on a pin to see that community's coronavirus vaccination rate or case numbers. You can also view the town-by-town coronavirus data here
Colors on the map represented if a community's case counts were decreasing, staying the same, or increasing. Blue dots meant a community had a lower case count from the previous week. Yellow meant they stayed the same, and red meant higher.
The data also did not include 1,642 of the state's cases because state health officials could not determine which communities the patients lived in. Vaccination rates in some communities, such as Brookline, Buckland and Lincoln, may be skewed by reporting issues, such as federal facilities or misalignment between ZIP code and municipal boundaries.
The Massachusetts Department of Health typically released municipal level vaccine data weekly at 5 p.m., Thursday, but that data was not immediately available.
Other Key Coronavirus Metrics
Of the 547 hospitalized patients, 45 were in intensive care Wednesday, up 14 from a week before, state health officials said.
According to the Department of Public Health, 37 percent of the state's coronavirus hospitalizations over the last week were "primarily" hospitalized for the virus, versus "incidental" cases who tested positive while hospitalized for another reason. Sixty-five percent of the state's hospitalized patients on Wednesday were vaccinated.
To date, there have been 1,634,308 confirmed cases and 19,181 deaths statewide since the pandemic began.
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The state reported 61,006 new tests Thursday, bringing the total administered to about 44.1 million.
The data included coronavirus cases for all Massachusetts communities, except for those with populations under 50,000 and those with fewer than five cases. The department said the stipulation was designed to protect the privacy of patients in those towns and cities.
The state releases town-by-town testing data every Thursday, including the number of people tested, the testing rate, the positive test rate, cases and infection rates.
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MA Town-By-Town COVID: Positivity Rate At Highest Point Since December originally appeared on the Across Massachusetts Patch
