A new study out of RAND and Indiana University found that 140,000 coronavirus deaths were prevented in the U.S. as a result of the early vaccination campaign. In addition to the prevention of thousands of deaths, researchers also estimate the economic impact of the vaccine program to be between $625 billion and $1.4 trillion.
Massachusetts health officials reported another 1,373 confirmed coronavirus cases and four new deaths on Thursday.
The report pushed the state's number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 693,093 since the start of the pandemic and its death toll to 17,799.
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Massachusetts' COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, are far lower than they were several months ago, though some have been rising in recent weeks. While breakthrough cases are being reported, officials say most new cases, and especially serious infections, are in the unvaccinated.
Also Thursday, the dashboard began including new data on hospitalizations regarding patients' demographics and how many hospitalized people have been vaccinated.
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Massachusetts' seven-day average of positive tests ticked down to 2.76% on Thursday. It 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 ticked up to 439; the figure was once nearly 4,000, but averaged under 85 in July. Of those currently hospitalized, 129 are vaccinated, 94 are listed as being in intensive care units and 48 are intubated.
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Nearly 9.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in Massachusetts. That includes over 4.6 million first shots and more than 4.1 million second shots of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. There have been more than 297,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered.
Health officials on Thursday reported that a total of 4,438,499 Bay State residents have been fully vaccinated.
