As we end out February, Massachusetts' COVID-19 metrics look dramatically different than they did at the beginning of the year.
On Monday the state reported another 1,632 confirmed coronavirus cases, a number that includes the weekend, and 31 new deaths.
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This puts the state's COVID-19 cases at 1,539,526 since the start of the pandemic and its death toll to 22,655.
Massachusetts' COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard paint a much improved picture from January, when COVID-19 cases were spiking due to the omicron variant. State health officials reported a single-day record on Jan. 5, topping 27,000 cases, followed by the second-highest single-day total on Jan. 7, with more than 26,000 cases.
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The 7-day average test positivity came in at 1.89% on Monday, compared to 2.13% reported Friday.
There were 445 hospitalizations reported Monday, with 83 patients in intensive care and 51 patients intubated. As recently as Jan. 14 there were 3,300 patients in hospitals. The worst period in the pandemic for hospitalizations continues to be April 2020, when nearly 4,000 people with COVID were in Massachusetts hospitals.
The state has started releasing a new breakdown of virus hospitalizations, data that indicates whether COVID-19 is the primary cause of hospitalization, or incidental. This data shows that from Jan. 13 to Feb. 7, roughly 50% of COVID-19 patients were primary cases. On Feb. 25, 45% of COVID-19 hospitalizations were primary cases.
More COVID News
More than 13.9 million vaccine doses have now been administered in Massachusetts. That includes more than 5.7 million first doses of either Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, 4.9 million second shots, and over 341,000 Johnson & Johnson one-dose shots. Over 2.8 million booster shots have been administered.
Health officials on Monday reported that a total of 5,286,245 Massachusetts residents have been fully vaccinated.
