COVID hospitalizations climb in state

Massachusetts health officials on Tuesday reported 1,380 new coronavirus cases, as total COVID hospitalizations in the Bay State jumped and the positive test rate rose.

The state Department of Public Health also reported 4,378 breakthrough cases from last week, which was a bit down from 4,568 breakthrough infections during the previous week.

Virus cases have been climbing for months amid the more highly contagious delta variant, but infection tallies have been slightly lower in recent weeks.

After the new 1,380 daily virus cases, the seven-day average of cases is now 1,163.

Two weeks ago, the daily average was 1,892 infections.

The positive test average has been coming down. The percent positivity is now 1.97%, a drop from 2.98% last month. The daily positive test rate for Tuesday’s report was 2.55%.

The state reported 22 new COVID deaths, bringing the state’s total recorded death toll to 18,577. The seven-day average of deaths is now 10.

The record-low daily death average was 1.3 in mid-July.

There are now 643 COVID patients in the state, a daily jump of 37 patients.

The state reported that 169 patients are in intensive care units, and 96 patients are currently intubated.

Of the 643 total hospitalizations, 197 patients are fully vaccinated — or about 31%.

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 154 fully vaxxed patients. That’s down from the previous weekly increase of 178 fully vaxxed patients.

There was a one-week increase of 37 breakthrough deaths, which was up from the previous weekly increase of 23 deaths.

More than 4.6 million people in Massachusetts are fully vaccinated, and more than 5.1 million people have gotten at least one shot.