Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker announces that effective Friday, hospitals can curtail some elective procedures that would be safely postponed to free up staffing and beds for coronavirus patients. He also announced new free COVID-19 testing locations in the state.
There were fewer new COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts Monday than in recent days, but the state's total since the start of the pandemic has now crossed the 250,000 mark.
There were 2,463 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus Monday, the Department of Public Health announced. Massachusetts also reported 30 more deaths from COVID-19.
There have now been 10,793 confirmed deaths and 250,022 cases, according to the DPH. Another 242 deaths are considered probably linked to COVID-19 at this time.
The average rate of COVID-19 tests was 5.46% as of Monday, according to the report — an increase from Sunday's 5.34%.
As of the time of the report, 1,516 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19. Of that total, 302 are listed as being in intensive care units and 153 are intubated, according to DPH.
Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday evening said the Commonwealth had submitted its order for a first round of vaccines to the CDC. The federal government allocated Massachusetts nearly 60,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in a first shipment.
The first doses will likely be reserved for frontline health care workers, people over the age of 65 or with underlying health conditions and other essential workers.
