With COVID-19 cases continuing to rise, some restaurants in the Boston area have made the decision to put indoor dining on hold.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts hit a single-day high for the third day in a row on Friday, when health officials reported another 10,040 confirmed cases -- the first time over 10,000 -- and 32 new deaths.
The report from the Department of Public Health pushed the state's number of confirmed COVID-19 to 980,055 and the death toll to 19,604.
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Friday's case total tops Thursday's prior record by 998 cases.
Massachusetts' COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, dashboard, had been lower than they were in spring, but rose in the last few months. The omicron variant, quickly becoming the dominant strain nationwide, is being monitored in case it accelerates the recent surge thought to have been fueled by the delta variant.
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Massachusetts' seven-day average of positive tests rose from 7.6% Thursday to 8.32% Friday, the highest it's been since Jan. 3. 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 fell to 1,595. The figure was once nearly 4,000, but reached under an average of 85 at one point in July.
Of those currently hospitalized, 503 are fully vaccinated, 358 are in intensive care units and 223 are intubated.
More COVID News
More than 12.5 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 nearly 2 million booster shots. There have been more than 334,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered.
Health officials on Friday reported that a total of 5,063,125 Massachusetts residents have been fully vaccinated.
