Mass. virus cases approaching spring’s high

One day after Massachusetts health officials reported the highest number of coronavirus cases since the spring, cases on Tuesday neared that high figure while five more people died from the virus.

Bay State health officials on Tuesday reported 821 cases, only six cases shy of the 827 cases on Monday — the highest count since the spring.

The five new coronavirus deaths bring the state’s COVID-19 death toll to 9,758, the state Department of Public Health said. The three-day average of coronavirus daily deaths has dropped from a peak of 161 in May to 15 now.

The state has logged 145,464 cases of the highly contagious disease, an increase of 821 confirmed cases and 155 probable cases since Monday. Of the 145,464 total cases, at least 118,892 people have recovered.

On Wednesday, Massachusetts health officials reported that 63 communities are now in the high-risk category for the coronavirus — a state record after 40 cities and towns were on the list last week. The state overall average is now in the red zone.

Gov. Charlie Baker at a Tuesday press conference said the primary driver for rising cases has been “informal events and social gatherings.”

The daily percentage of tested individuals who are positive continues to remain high. That figure at the start of September was between 1% and 2%, but the rate was 4.2% on Saturday, 3.4% on Sunday and 6.2% on Monday — the most recent day of available data.

The seven-day weighted average of the state’s positive test rate climbed from 1.2% on Monday to 1.3% on Tuesday.

Coronavirus hospitalizations went up by 17 patients, bringing the state’s COVID19 hospitalization total to 517.

The highest peak of Massachusetts’ coronavirus hospitalizations was 3,965 on April 21. The three-day average of coronavirus hospitalizations has jumped from 308 last month to 500 now.

The state reported 25,301 residents and health care workers at long-term care facilities have now contracted the virus.

Of the state’s 9,758 total coronavirus deaths, 6,293 are connected to long-term care facilities.

More than 220,000 Americans have died. The country’s death toll is the highest in the world, which eclipsed 1 million deaths last week worldwide.

The U.S. has recorded more than 8.2 million coronavirus cases — also the most in the world. More than 3.2 million people have recovered.