The World Health Organization says the Delta variant is so contagious that even vaccinated people ought to wear masks, so the variant doesn’t spread to unvaccinated people. NBC News medical correspondent Dr. John Torres talks about the variant and whether the U.S. would need to reinstitute mask mandates in the face of it.
Massachusetts health officials reported another 63 confirmed coronavirus cases and one new death on Tuesday.
The day's numbers pushed the state's confirmed COVID-19 caseload to 663,729 since the start of the pandemic and its death toll to 17,629.
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The state's COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, have been falling for months, and many are at or near record lows.
The number of patients in Massachusetts hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 104; the figure was once nearly 4,000. Of those currently hospitalized, 31 are listed as being in intensive care units and 15 are intubated.
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Once above 30%, Massachusetts' seven-day average of positive tests increased to 0.33%.
Health officials' projection of active COVID-19 cases dropped to 1,361 from on Monday.
More Mass. COVID News
More than 8.6 million vaccine doses have been administered in Massachusetts as of Tuesday. That includes over 4.4 million first shots and more than 3.9 million second shots of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. There have been more than 275,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered.
Health officials on Tuesday reported that a total of 4,196,061 Bay State residents have been fully vaccinated.
