Worcester County's COVID new cases flat; Massachusetts cases up 7.3%

Mike Stucka USA TODAY NETWORK
·3 min read

New coronavirus cases increased 7.3% in Massachusetts in the week ending Sunday as the state added 5,264 cases. The previous week had 4,906 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Massachusetts ranked 16th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 12.9% from the week before, with 209,244 cases reported. With 2.07% of the country's population, Massachusetts had 2.52% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 11 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

On March 14 Massachusetts changed how deaths are reported, removing several thousand deaths from the official tallies. This will make week-to-week comparisons inaccurate.

Worcester County reported 495 cases and minus 489 deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 483 cases and 35 deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 190,566 cases and 2,559 deaths.

Within Massachusetts, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Hampshire County with 90 cases per 100,000 per week; Suffolk County with 85; and Berkshire County with 84. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Middlesex County, with 1,279 cases; Suffolk County, with 686 cases; and Worcester County, with 495. Weekly case counts rose in five counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk counties.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

Massachusetts ranked 3rd among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 96.9% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 76.7%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.

In the week ending Tuesday, Massachusetts reported administering another 37,468 vaccine doses, including 17,692 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 50,159 vaccine doses, including 25,952 first doses. In all, Massachusetts reported it has administered 14,367,584 total doses.

Across Massachusetts, cases fell in six counties, with the best declines in Middlesex County, with 1,279 cases from 1,436 a week earlier; in Hampden County, with 244 cases from 298; and in Hampshire County, with 145 cases from 187.

In Massachusetts, -3,722 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 174 people were reported dead.

A total of 1,685,937 people in Massachusetts have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 20,029 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 79,734,788 people have tested positive and 971,162 people have died.

Note: For Massachusetts, Johns Hopkins University reports data in a combined health department for Dukes and Nantucket counties. Those two counties may appear without any cases, and this will skew rankings of counties.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

Massachusetts's COVID-19 hospital admissions staying flat

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Friday, March 18.

Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

  • Last week: 732

  • The week before that: 734

  • Four weeks ago: 1,253

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

  • Last week: 42,952

  • The week before that: 50,548

  • Four weeks ago: 87,325

Hospitals in two states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in four states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in five states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

Sandra Lindsay, right, a nurse and the director of nursing for critical care at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York, hugs fellow nurse Patricia Rodriguez Feb. 18, 2022. Lindsay was the first person in the United States to receive an authorized COVID-19 vaccine when she received it on Dec. 14, 2020.
Sandra Lindsay, right, a nurse and the director of nursing for critical care at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York, hugs fellow nurse Patricia Rodriguez Feb. 18, 2022. Lindsay was the first person in the United States to receive an authorized COVID-19 vaccine when she received it on Dec. 14, 2020.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Worcester County reported 495 additional COVID-19 cases this week