Nearly 200 fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts tested positive for coronavirus on a daily basis last week, as the rate of breakthrough infections pick up in the Bay State.
COVID infection tallies have been rising at a rapid pace in recent weeks amid the more highly contagious delta variant.
Massachusetts health officials on Tuesday reported a daily spike of 883 cases, the first single-day virus count that has eclipsed 850 infections in nearly three months.
The seven-day average of daily infections is now 598. That is more than nine times the pandemic-low average of 64 daily cases in June.
The Bay State also reported two COVID deaths on Tuesday, bringing the state’s total recorded death toll to 18,086. The seven-day average of virus deaths is now 1.7, slightly up from the record-low average of 1.1 three weeks ago.
COVID hospitalizations continue to rise, jumping by 11 patients on Tuesday. There are now 226 COVID patients in hospitals across the state, nearly three times as many patients as a month ago.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Public Health on Tuesday published new data on breakthrough infections, showing that 7,737 fully vaxxed people had tested positive for COVID as of Saturday.
That’s 0.18% of the nearly 4.3 million fully vaxxed people in Massachusetts on that date.
The 7,737 breakthrough infections is a jump of 1,364 cases in one week, or a daily average of 195 cases.
The fully vaccinated cases are making up about one-third of the state’s overall reported cases as daily infection tallies near 600 on average.
Between July 10 and July 17, the state reported 716 breakthrough infections — a daily average of 102 cases.
Then the following week, officials reported 1,207 breakthroughs — a daily average of 172 breakthrough infections. Last week, the daily average increased to 195 cases.
COVID-19 hospitalizations remain at a significantly lower rate for those who are fully vaccinated. There have been 395 hospitalizations among fully vaccinated people, which is 0.009% of those who are fully vaccinated.
The 395 total patients is a one-week increase of 34 fully vaxxed patients.
The state has reported 100 breakthrough deaths, or 0.002% of those who are fully vaxxed. That’s a one-week increase of nine deaths.
