Mass. Confirms 1,516 New COVID Cases, 41 Deaths as More Than 500K Residents Fully Vaccinated

Massachusetts health officials reported 1,516 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 41 more deaths on Saturday shortly after announcing more than half a million Bay State residents are fully vaccinated against the virus.

There have now been totals of 548,874 confirmed cases and 15,744 deaths in the state, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Another 323 deaths are considered probably linked to COVID-19.

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Generally, Massachusetts' coronavirus metrics have been trending down in the past several weeks, according to the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, with the average number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths peaking in the second week of January. The testing rate peaked Jan. 1. The figures reported daily are important for tracking trends with the virus' spread, though a single-day change may not reflect a larger trend, and may reflect incomplete data.

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The percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive, on average, fell slightly to 1.85% from 1.9%.

The number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 dipped below 800 to 785. Of that number, 204 were listed as being in intensive care units and 139 were intubated, according to health officials.

The number of estimated active cases declined to 30,111 from 30,983 on Friday.

Gov. Charlie Baker was among the top officials to testify before lawmakers regarding the state's rollout of the coronavirus vaccine.

Earlier Saturday, the DPH released its daily vaccine data report showing that 504,304 Massachusetts residents have received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to Saturday's report, there are 1,166,889 people living in Massachusetts who have received their first dose of the vaccine, bringing the grand total of doses administered as of midnight Saturday to 1,671,193.

In the report, data shows a total of 2,047,960 vaccine doses have been shipped to Massachusetts, meaning 81.6% of those vaccine doses have been administered throughout the commonwealth.

Of the grand total shipped to Massachusetts, 1,526,135 have been shipped to state providers, while the other 521,825 have been shipped directly to pharmacies by the federal government.