Deaths up 11, positive test rate rises
Massachusetts health officials on Monday reported 11 new coronavirus deaths and 367 new cases, while the state’s average positive test rate ticked up to 0.9%.
The 11 new coronavirus deaths bring the state’s COVID-19 death toll to 9,415, the state Department of Public Health announced. The three-day average of coronavirus daily deaths has dropped from 161 at the start of May to 13 now.
The state has logged 131,072 cases of the highly contagious disease, an increase of 367 confirmed cases and 63 probable cases since Sunday.
The weekend saw a bigger increase, with more than 1,100 people in Massachusetts newly diagnosed with COVID-19 as hospitalizations spiked and both Saturday and Sunday saw positive test rates jump above 3%.
The Department of Public
Health reported 515 new coronavirus cases on Saturday and another 594 new cases on Sunday, raising the state’s cumulative caseload to 128,426 people.
The DPH also announced the recent deaths of 18 people Saturday and 13 people Sunday, increasing the confirmed death toll to 9,191, or 9,404 when counting people who died with probable cases.
Saturday’s 515 new cases came from testing 14,310 new people, which works out to a positivity rate of 3.6%. Sunday’s 594 cases came from tests of 18,065 new people, or 3.29% positive.
Sunday’s spike more than
erased the decrease of 35 patients between Friday and Saturday. In the last month, the three-day average number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized is up more than 27%, according to DPH.
As of Monday, restaurants can seat groups of up to 10 people at indoor or outdoor tables, up from the previous limit of six people, and diners can eat at bar seating as well.
When he announced the eased rules last week, Gov. Charlie Baker said “the evidence from other states with respect to this issue is clear” and that bar seating could be done safely.
Of the 131,072 total cases in the state so far, at least 111,479 people have recovered.
The seven-day weighted average of the Bay State’s positive test rate ticked up from 0.8% on Sunday to 0.9% on Monday.
Coronavirus hospitalizations went up by 10 patients, bringing the state’s COVID-19 hospitalization total to 418.
There are 85 patients in the ICU, and 31 patients are currently intubated.
The highest peak of Massachusetts’ coronavirus hospitalizations was 3,965 on April 21. The three-day average of the number of coronavirus hospitalizations has increased from 308 two weeks ago to 393 now.
An additional 13,049 tests have brought the state’s total to more than 3.9 million tests.
The state reported 24,869 residents and health care workers at long-term care facilities have now contracted the virus, with 383 facilities reporting at least one case of COVID-19.
Of the state’s 9,415 total coronavirus deaths, 6,045 are connected to long-term care facilities.
More than 204,000 Americans have died. The country’s death toll is the highest in the world.
The U.S. has recorded more than 7.1 million coronavirus cases — also the most in the world. More than 2.7 million people have recovered.