Massachusetts health officials on Sunday reported 14 new coronavirus deaths and 744 new cases — one of the highest days of cases in the Bay State since the spring.
The 14 new coronavirus deaths bring the state’s COVID-19 death toll to 9,737, the state Department of Public Health said. The three-day average of coronavirus daily deaths has dropped from a peak of 161 in May to 18 now.
The state has logged 143,660 cases of the highly contagious disease, an increase of 744 confirmed cases since Saturday. Of the 143,660 total cases, at least 118,892 people have recovered.
On Wednesday, Massachusetts health officials reported that 63 communities are now in the high-risk category for the coronavirus — a state record after 40 cities and towns were on the list last week. The state overall average is now in the red zone.
The daily percentage of tested individuals who are positive continues to hover around 4%. That figure at the start of September was between 1% and 2%, but the rate was 5.0% on Thursday, 4.5% on Friday and 4.0% on Saturday — the most recent day of available data.
The seven-day weighted average of the state’s positive test rate ticked down from 1.3% on Saturday to 1.2% on Sunday.
Coronavirus hospitalizations went down by 17 patients, bringing the state’s COVID-19 hospitalization total to 483.
The highest peak of Massachusetts’ coronavirus hospitalizations was 3,965 on April 21. The three-day average of coronavirus hospitalizations has jumped from 308 last month to 499 now.
Of the state’s 9,737 total coronavirus deaths, 6,278 are connected to long-term care facilities.
The state reported 25,294 residents and health care workers at long-term care facilities have now contracted the virus.
An additional 15,588 tests have brought the state’s total to more than 5.1 million tests.
There are 83 patients in the ICU, and 32 patients are currently intubated.
More than 219,000 Americans have died. The country’s death toll is the highest in the world, which eclipsed 1 million deaths last week worldwide.
The U.S. has recorded more than 8.1 million coronavirus cases — also the most in the world. More than 3.2 million people have recovered.
