Boston public school students will be required to wear masks in the fall, Mayor Kim Janey said Thursday, despite statewide guidance that allows children to learn mask-free in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts health officials reported another 586 confirmed coronavirus cases -- the most in a single day since mid-May -- and five new deaths on Friday as the testing rate rose above 1.5%.
The report pushed the state's confirmed COVID-19 caseload to 667,404 since the start of the pandemic and its death toll to 17,678. The last time Massachusetts reported more than 586 new cases in one day was on May 15, when 494 cases were reported.
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The state's 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 the last few weeks.
Massachusetts' seven-day average of positive tests rose to 1.53% on Friday. It was once above 30%, but had recently dropped under 0.5%.
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The number of patients in Massachusetts hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 cases ticked down to 114; the figure was once nearly 4,000. Of those currently hospitalized, 29 are listed as being in intensive care units and 12 are intubated.
More Mass. COVID News
More than 8.8 million vaccine doses have been administered in Massachusetts as of Friday. That includes over 4.5 million first shots and more than 4 million second shots of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. There have been more than 285,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered.
Health officials on Friday reported that a total of 4,321,931 Bay State residents have been fully vaccinated.
