Cases in fully vaxxed stay high
State health officials on Tuesday reported 2,915 new coronavirus cases, as total COVID hospitalizations in the Bay State continued to surge after Thanksgiving.
The state Department of Public Health also reported a spike of 6,610 breakthrough cases during the week of Thanksgiving, staying at a high level after the previous week’s tally of 6,917 breakthrough infections.
The state’s positive test average has been rising, now standing at 4.46% — way up from 1.67% a few weeks ago. The daily positive test rate for Tuesday’s report was 4.58%.
The state reported 31 new COVID deaths, bringing the state’s total recorded death toll to 19,404. The seven-day average of deaths is now 10.1. The recordlow daily death average was 1.3 in mid-july.
There are now 906 COVID patients in the state, a daily jump of 67 patients. Hospitalizations have been spiking in recent weeks, an 80% jump from 502 patients a few weeks ago. The last time the state had a high count of 906 total patients was in Febru-ary
he state reported that 190 patients are in intensive care units, and 100 patients are currently intubated.
Of the 906 total hospitalizations, 317 patients are fully vaccinated — or about 35%. Those who are unvaccinated are at a much higher risk for a severe case.
In the weekly breakthrough report, the state reported a weekly increase of 158 fully vaxxed patients. That’s down from the previous weekly increase of 205 fully vaxxed patients. There have been 2,443 hospitalizations among fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts, which represents 0.05% of those who are fully vaxxed.
There was a one-week increase of 34 breakthrough deaths. That’s down from the previous weekly increase of 43 deaths. The state has reported 586 breakthrough deaths, or 0.01% of those who are fully vaxxed.
More than 4.8 million people in Massachusetts are fully vaccinated, and more than 5.7 million people have gotten at least one shot. The state reported that more than 1.1 million people (1,118,223) have gotten a booster dose.