Massachusetts health officials reported another 5,472 confirmed COVID-19 cases -- the most in one day since mid-January -- and 27 new deaths Thursday.
The report from the Department of Public Health pushed the state's number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 896,423 since the start of the pandemic and its death toll to 19,190.
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The previous single-day high for newly confirmed COVID cases was on Jan. 16, as last winter's surge was receding, state data shows. Thursday's total is the second straight day above 5,400.
Massachusetts' COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, dashboard, had been far lower than they were in spring, but have been rising lately. The discovery of omicron, a new COVID strain labeled a variant of concern by the World Health Organization over the Thanksgiving weekend, is being monitored in case it accelerates the recent surge statewide and across the U.S.
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Massachusetts' seven-day average of positive tests rose from 4.99% Wednesday to 5.01% Thursday. 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 1,239, the most since Feb. 10, according to state data; the figure was once nearly 4,000, but reached under an average of 85 at one point in July.
Of those currently hospitalized, 418 are fully vaccinated, 261 are in intensive care units and 149 are intubated.
More than 11.8 million vaccine doses have now been administered in Massachusetts.
That includes, from the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, nearly 5.4 million first shots, more than 4.6 million second shots and nearly 1.5 million booster shots. There have been more than 331,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered.
Health officials on Thursday reported that a total of 4,959,190 Massachusetts residents have been fully vaccinated.
