COVID in Mass.: 1,637 cases, 2 more deaths

‘Stealth omicron’ is in effect

The state saw 1,637 new coronavirus cases on Friday as the percent positivity rate continued to nudge back up.

The daily state COVID-19 report counted two new deaths, bringing the total number to 19,030, according to state health officials.

The 1,637 new cases make 1.57 million confirmed in the Bay State since the start of the pandemic more than two years ago.

The seven-day positivity rate is 2.93%, continuing a slow climb from a post-omicron-surge low from about a month ago of about a percentage point and a half less. This mark is still far lower than the 23%-plus from the height of the omicron surge three months ago, and health officials throughout the pandemic have said that marks below 5% suggest many cases are being picked up by testing.

Case counts have been rising over the past couple weeks, though also remaining far lower than the omicron peak. Friday’s mark nudged down slightly from Thursday’s, and the sevenday rolling average daily case count, which during January topped 23,000, moved down slightly to 1,013.

The number of people in hospitals with coronavirus essentially has remained level for the past month, and on Friday was 231, including 36 in intensive-care units and 22 intubated. Only 80 of the total number hospitalized are actually in because of COVID-19; the rest are hospitalized for an unrelated reason but have since tested positive.

The recent trend upward has been driven by the BA.2 strain, which has been called “stealth omicron” because of the difficulty in picking it up in tests. Experts have said an uptick is expected, but even with the loosened restrictions, it shouldn’t be of the same scope as the original omicron burst or other big waves.