COVID-19 cases continue to rise, and health experts expect even higher infection rates in the coming weeks.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts hit a single-day high once again on Wednesday, when health officials reported another 15,163 confirmed cases and 45 new deaths.
The report from the Department of Public Health pushed the state's number of confirmed COVID-19 to 1,017,429 and the death toll to 19,737. The state crossed the 1 million case mark on Tuesday.
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Wednesday's high tops the previous record, set on Friday, by 5,123 cases. The record was set three times last week amid the latest COVID surge.
Massachusetts' COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, dashboard, have been spiking to heights not seen since last winter's surge, thought to be driven in part by the omicron variant.
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Massachusetts' seven-day average of positive tests rose from 11.08% Tuesday to 13.58% Wednesday, the highest it's been since May 12, 2020. The metric was once above 30%, but had dropped under 0.5% until the delta variant began surging in the state.
The number of patients in Massachusetts hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 1,711, the most since Jan. 29. The figure was once nearly 4,000, but reached under an average of 85 at one point in July.
Of those currently hospitalized, 572 are fully vaccinated, 392 are in intensive care units and 245 are intubated.
More COVID News
Nearly 12.7 million vaccine doses have now been administered in Massachusetts.
That includes, from the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, over 5.5 million first shots, more than 4.7 million second shots and above 2 million booster shots. There have been more than 334,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered.
Health officials on Wednesday reported that a total of 5,076,581 Massachusetts residents have been fully vaccinated.
