Health & Fitness

MA Town-By-Town Coronavirus Stats: Positive Rate Rises Again

Most coronavirus metrics continued to fall statewide, but the positive test rate reversed its decline.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported 1,560 new coronavirus cases, 14 deaths and 21,152 vaccine doses administered Thursday.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported 1,560 new coronavirus cases, 14 deaths and 21,152 vaccine doses administered Thursday. (Emily Leayman/Patch)

MASSACHUSETTS — The positive coronavirus test rate rose back above 2 percent Thursday, despite continued declines in other statewide virus metrics.

The average daily case count remained below 1,000 and the hospitalization and death rates continued to fall, the Department of Public Health reported.

At the town level, roughly half of communities reported falling positive test rates, according to town-by-town data released Thursday. Twenty Massachusetts communities didn't report a single positive test over the last two weeks, up four from the last report.

Find out what's happening in Across Massachusettswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Department of Public Health reported 1,560 new coronavirus cases, 14 deaths and 21,152 vaccine doses administered Thursday.

The seven-day average number of hospitalized patients was 552.1, down from 594.3 the week prior.

Find out what's happening in Across Massachusettswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

There were 11.7 deaths per day on average over the last week, down from 13.3 a week before.

The average weekly case count was 967.7 daily cases, down from 1306 a week earlier.

The weekly average positive-test rate rose from 1.79 percent to 2.03 percent.

The lowest positive rate was 0.31 percent on June 25.

Vaccines

The latest vaccine report shows the number of residents who are fully vaccinated has risen to 4.68 million. Another 509,792 residents have received one dose of the two-dose Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.

Booster doses have been given to 226,667 residents.

Over two-thirds of the state's population, 68.6 percent, is fully vaccinated, but some communities lag behind, according to state data. Fifteen communities continue to report that fewer than half their residents are even partially vaccinated. Compare that with the more than 90 percent of residents fully vaccinated in 12 cities and towns.

How to use this map: Zoom in on the map below and click on a pin to see that community's coronavirus vaccination rates. You can also view the town-by-town coronavirus vaccination data in the spreadsheet we used to create this map.

Colors reflect the percentage of the population fully vaccinated, from under 50 percent, red, to more than 70 percent, green. The state did not report vaccination numbers for the two gray communities. Some communities are grouped together for the purpose of vaccination data.


Note: For dozens of communities, up to 30 vaccinations may be missing from the data, as the state does not report totals for demographic subgroups with fewer than 30 vaccinated. No vaccination data is available for two communities with particularly low populations: Gosnold and Monroe.

The data also does not include 971 of the state's cases because state health officials could not determine which communities the patients lived in.

Other Key Coronavirus Metrics

Of 567 hospitalized patients, there were 142 patients in intensive care Wednesday, down from 150 a week prior.

The positive test rate over the last two weeks fell in 166 — or 47.3 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate rose in 132 — or 37.6 percent — of the communities. It held steady in the remaining 53.

Less than two-thirds of communities reported positive test rates higher than 2 percent during the past two weeks, including 42 with test rates above 5 percent — down 11 from last week. The highest rate, 19.1 percent, was reported by both Leyden and Tyringham.

Statewide, there were 19.0 average daily cases per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks, down from 20.3 in last week's report.

To date, there have been 775,963 cases and 18,427 deaths statewide since the pandemic began.

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The state reported 107,844 new tests Thursday, bringing the total administered to 29.8 million.

The data includes coronavirus cases for all Massachusetts communities, except for those with populations under 50,000 and where there are fewer than five cases. The department said the stipulation was designed to protect the privacy of patients in those towns and cities.

The state releases town-by-town testing data every Thursday, including the number of people tested, the testing rate, the positive test rate, cases and infection rates.

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