Massachusetts health officials reported 1,662 new COVID-19 cases Thursday and seven new deaths.
In total, there have been 1,746,713 cases and 19,593 deaths since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE
 |
Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are. |
More on the COVID-19 pandemic
The state reported 478 people hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Thursday's data release, with 153 being primary cases. Of the total hospitalizations, 40 are in intensive care and 11 are intubated.
Get updates on what's happening in Boston to your inbox. Sign up for our News Headlines newsletter.
Massachusetts' COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, had been trending up in recent weeks, but the latest numbers seem to reflect a decline in the spring bump.
Only two of Massachusetts' 14 counties are now considered high risk for COVID-19, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This latest increase was attributed to subvariants of omicron — first, it was the "stealth" omicron variant BA.2, and more recently the BA.2. 12.1 subvariant, which health officials say appears to be more contagious than BA.2. However, there is no data to indicate it causes more serious illness.
The state's seven-day average positivity was at 5.54% Thursday.
This spring bump was well below the types of case counts and hospitalizations seen at height of the omicron surge in January, when average daily case counts reached over 28,000 and hospitalizations peaked at around 3,300.
COVID levels in wastewater, as reported by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority's tracking system have also started to signal declines. The levels of virus seen in the wastewater also remain nowhere near where they were during the peak of the omicron surge.
Experts have also said that case count reporting became a less accurate indicator during the omicron surge, given the difficulties in getting tested. Now, widespread use of rapid tests means that some results go unreported.
More than 14.9 million vaccine doses have now been administered in Massachusetts.
Health officials on Thursday reported that a total of 5,399,243 Massachusetts residents have been fully vaccinated.
