The number of new COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts hit a single-day high for the second day in a row on Thursday, when health officials reported another 9,042 confirmed cases and 47 new deaths.
The report from the Department of Public Health pushed the state's number of confirmed COVID-19 to 970,015 and the death toll to 19,572.
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Thursday's high tops Wednesday's prior record by 1,225 cases. Before that, the single-day high was set with 7,635 new COVID cases on Jan. 8, as the winter surge was receding, according to state data.
Massachusetts' COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, dashboard, had been lower than they were in spring, but rose in the last few months. The omicron variant, quickly becoming the dominant strain nationwide, is being monitored in case it accelerates the recent surge thought to have been fueled by the delta variant.
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Massachusetts' seven-day average of positive tests rose from 7.02% Wednesday to 7.6%, the highest it's been since Jan. 8. The metric was once above 30%, but had dropped under 0.5% until the delta variant began surging in the state.
The number of patients in Massachusetts hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 1,632, the most since Feb. 2. The figure was once nearly 4,000, but reached under an average of 85 at one point in July.
Of those currently hospitalized, 500 are fully vaccinated, 362 are in intensive care units and 213 are intubated.
More COVID News
More than 12.5 million vaccine doses have now been administered in Massachusetts.
That includes, from the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, over 5.5 million first shots, more than 4.7 million second shots and above 1.9 million booster shots. There have been more than 335,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered.
Health officials on Thursday reported that a total of 5,060,091 Massachusetts residents have been fully vaccinated.
