Virus rates rise
Active cases, high-risk areas up over last week
Health officials announced 2,274 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts on Thursday and 39 new confirmed deaths.
The number of confirmed cases reported by the DPH on Thursday brings the total to 586,298 cases since January.
The figures show there have also been 16,671 confirmed deaths from the virus statewide since the pandemic began.
On Thursday, the DPH announced there were 631 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, including 137 patients in intensive care units statewide and 87 patients who were intubated.
There were an estimated 28,078 active COVID-19 cases statewide as of Thursday, about a 9% increase in active cases compared to last week’s data.
Thursday’s figures also show there were 111,753 new COVID19 molecular tests provided statewide, bringing the cumulative total since the pandemic began to roughly 18.31 million tests.
The number of cities and towns on the state’s weekly list of communities at “high risk” for coronavirus transmission continues to grow, though Fitchburg and Leominster, and their surrounding communities, remain absent from the list, according to the data.
To qualify as high risk for coronavirus transmission, the DPH states communities with populations under 10,000 must have more than 25 cases of the virus. For communities between 10,000 and 50,000 people, they must have an average of at least 10 cases per 100,000 people and a positive test rate of at least 5%. For communities with a population exceeding 50,000, they must have at least 10 cases per 100,000 people and a positive test rate of at least 4%.
Each category is based on the previous 14 days of data.
Seven weeks ago, the total number of communities classified as high risk statewide was 153.
The number of cities and towns on the list dropped to just 14 on March 4, according to DPH data.
The number of communities classified as high risk has increased each week since that date, reaching 32 communities as of Thursday’s figures.
Thursday data also shows a statewide increase in two key metrics compared to last week. The statewide average daily COVID-19 incidence rate per 100,000 people over the past 14 days increased Thursday to 21.5, compared to 19.5 reported last week.
The percent positivity rate over the previous 14 days increased Thursday to 2.01%, compared to last week’s figure of 1.83%.
According to the state’s archives, this is the first time these two metrics have increased from the previous week since Jan. 14.
Despite the increase in these two metrics, Thursday’s figures remain significantly lower than they did on Jan. 14, when the incidence rate per 100,000 people was 78 and the percent positivity rate was nearly 8%.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 65,083 new cases of COVID-19 nationwide on Thursday afternoon, bringing the total to approximately 29.83 million cases since the pandemic began.
The CDC also announced the virus’ nationwide death toll was 542,584 as of Thursday afternoon, an increase of roughly 7,367 deaths compared to last Thursday.
According to the CDC, there have been 133,305,295 vaccines administered nationwide as of Thursday. About 26.3% of the population has received a first dose, while 14.3% of the population has been fully vaccinated.
Below is the total COVID-19 infections by city and town from Jan. 1, 2020, through Tuesday and how that total compares to last week’s numbers: Ashburnham – 363 (+8) Ashby – 150 (+2)
Ayer – 779 (+15)
Fitchburg – 4,293 (+52) Gardner – 2,129 (+22) Groton – 439 (+16) Lancaster – 494 (+13) Leominster – 4,584 (+46) Lunenburg – 658 (+4) Pepperell – 460 (+6) Princeton – 135 (+2) Rutland – 561 (+11)
Shirley – 792 (+4)
Sterling – 641 (+6) Townsend – 403 (+9) Westminster – 487 (+5)