Taunton reports highest weekly COVID case total since early 2021 winter surge
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TAUNTON — New COVID cases in the city reached levels not seen since the last winter surge, during early February 2021.
On Friday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released its latest weekly report, and recorded 207 new cases of COVID-19 in the city over the past week.
The last time that happened was the week of Feb. 4, 2021, during a winter surge of COVID cases.
There was a delay in this week's Mass. DPH report, with figures released on Friday instead of Thursday, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Cases were up for the Greater Taunton area, with Mass. DPH reporting 549 in total for our area.
Hospitalizations due to COVID climbed again in the city, with DPH reporting that 15 people are hospitalized with COVID at Morton Hospital.
For the third week in a row, the city's positivity rate climbed, reaching 5.75% this week, up from 4.56% last week.
The state's seven-day average is 3.37% as of Friday.
Since the pandemic began, there have been 8,447 total cases of COVID-19 in the city. The running two-week case total is 340, and the city's daily incidence rate this past week was 42.2 per 100,000 in population.
On Friday, state health officials also reported 5,058 new cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts, bringing the total to 847,030 cases statewide since the pandemic began.
Officials also reported 24 new COVID-related deaths. The state's death toll is now 18,939 people.
Over the last two weeks, DPH says that 15 people have died in Bristol County.
Who's been vaccinated?
Taunton has reached 61% full vaccination. As of the latest report, that is 35,160 people in the city.
Sixty-eight percent, or 39,133 people, has received at least one dose.
Someone is considered fully vaccinated when they are two weeks out from receiving either a one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine or the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
Bristol County COVID vaccine tracker: 60% of people fully vaccinated
As of this week, the only two towns in the Greater Taunton area that have not met or exceeded 60% full vaccination are Middleboro and Rehoboth.
According to the latest figures from DPH, Berkley, Dighton, Freetown, Lakeville, Norton, and Raynham have have met or exceeded 60% full vaccination.
The latest vaccination figures for Greater Taunton:
Berkley: 67% partially vaccinated; 60% fully vaccinated
Dighton: 67% partially vaccinated; 60% fully vaccinated
Freetown: 72% partially vaccinated; 64% fully vaccinated
Lakeville: 73% partially vaccinated; 64% fully vaccinated
Middleboro: 60% partially vaccinated; 54% fully vaccinated
Norton: 70% partially vaccinated; 61% fully vaccinated
Raynham: 76% partially vaccinated; 67% fully vaccinated
Rehoboth: 61% partially vaccinated; 53% fully vaccinated
So far, more than 13 million (13,215,720) vaccine doses have been shipped to the state, and more than 11 million (11,248,851) have now been administered.
The state has also administered more than one million booster shots as of Friday: 1,056,088, to be precise.
The COVID-19 vaccines are all free, and some locations that offer the vaccine accept walk-ins. Visit the state's Vaxfinder website to book an appointment, or call 211.
As of the latest DPH vaccine report, 4,841,958 Massachusetts residents are fully vaccinated.
Hospitalizations due to COVID
According to state health officials, there are 771 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Massachusetts, and 156 of them are in an intensive care unit.
At Morton Hospital in Taunton, there are 15 people hospitalized with COVID-19, and two of them are in the ICU.
COVID in Greater Taunton
Almost all of Taunton's surrounding towns reported jumps in new COVID cases over the past week; some of them reported double the previous week's new case total.
New COVID cases up: Bristol County's COVID cases up 59.3%; Mass. cases surge 47.9%
Middleboro, though it continues to report the highest number of new cases in the Greater Taunton area, was the only surrounding town to report a decrease this week, with 77 new cases. Last week, there were 82.
Berkley and Dighton more than doubled last week's totals. Last week, Berkley reported 16 new COVID cases, and this week there were 33. Dighton, which reported 12 new cases last week, reported 28 this week.
Over the past week, DPH reports that there were 549 (including the 207 cases in Taunton) new cases of COVID-19 reported for Greater Taunton:
Berkley: 33 new cases; 997 total; 50 two-week running case count; 52.4 average daily incidence rate; 8.90% positivity.
Dighton: 28 new cases; 948 total; 37 two-week running case count; 33.3 average daily incidence rate; 5.97% positivity.
Freetown: 47 new cases; 1,323 total; 65 two-week running case count; 51.3 average daily incidence rate; 7.95% positivity.
Lakeville: 44 new cases; 1,411 total; 66 two-week running case count; 41.5 average daily incidence rate; 7.36% positivity.
Middleboro: 77 new cases; 3,057 total; 159 two-week running case count; 41.4 average daily incidence rate; 6.95% positivity.
Norton: 39 new cases; 1,965 total; 66 two-week running case count; 23.7 average daily incidence rate; 1.44% positivity.
Raynham: 38 new cases; 2,069 total; 60 two-week running case count; 28.3 average daily incidence rate; 4.24% positivity.
Rehoboth: 36 new cases; 1,349 total; 51 two-week running case count; 28.7 average daily incidence rate; 6.91% positivity.
Taunton Daily Gazette/Herald News copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached at kfontes@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.
This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: New COVID cases in Taunton highest since early Feb 2021
