Massachusetts health officials reported 481 more confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and another 18 deaths from COVID-19 on Monday.
It's the fewest new cases reported in a single day since Oct. 8, according to state data, though data released on Mondays tend to be lower than average, since reports come from Sunday's data.
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There have now been 648,249 confirmed cases and a total of 17,288 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Another 351 deaths are considered probably linked to COVID-19.
The seven-day average of positive tests on Monday remained at 1.49%. Sunday was the first time the figure dropped below 1.5% since mid October.
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Many of Massachusetts' COVID metrics, including the average number of coronavirus cases, average coronavirus test positivity and average number of confirmed deaths reported each day, have been falling since the end of March, according to trends posted to the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard.
The number of patients in Massachusetts hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 cases ticked down on Monday to 522. Among those patients, 133 were listed as being in intensive care units and 82 were intubated.
Health officials' projection of active COVID-19 cases decreased to 23,676 on Monday from 24,104 on Sunday.
Nearly 6.3 million doses of COVID vaccines have been administered in Massachusetts as of Monday, including more than 3.6 million first doses and over 2.4 million second doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. There have been more than 210,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered.
Over 2.6 million people have been fully immunized in the Bay State.
