Massachusetts reported 2,096 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, a relatively higher amount following the Labor Day weekend.
Massachusetts has typically seen upticks in daily reports following holidays, the most recent mini-surge having risen after the Fourth of July holiday. Cases have continued to rise since then.
Although new COVID cases remain elevated, growth in the current mini-surge were showing signs of slowing in the past few weeks. A look at COVID cases by test date shows new cases slowed to just a 7% increase last week over the previous week. There have been 10,752 positive cases reported from last week. It is unclear what impact students returning to school combined with the holiday weekend will have on virus trends in the coming weeks.
Hospitalizations are hovering at 622, data from the state shows. They dropped to a low of 80 during June, but are still nowhere near the start of the pandemic when they approached 4,000 or when they passed 2,000 in January.
Of those 622 people, 166 patients were in intensive care and 93 are intubated.
The percentage of vaccinated individuals among the COVID hospitalizations creeped back up to 29% today after dipping over the past week. About 71% of COVID hospitalizations are among unvaccinated people despite the fact that they make up the minority of the population.
About 40% of cases in the general public are breakthrough cases of vaccinated individuals, with the other 60% being unvaccinated people.
An analysis in The New York Times Tuesday estimated vaccinated individuals in the U.S. have about one in 5,000 per day chance of getting COVID, and that the chances are even lower for people who take precautions or live in a highly vaccinated community. In areas like the Northeast, the analysis shows the chances are lower and probably less than 1 in 10,000.
The seven-day average percent positivity of new tests had been going back down but rose today to 2.48%.
There were 18 more COVID deaths reported.
The state saw an uptick in new vaccinations, with 10,506 more doses reported after the long holiday weekend saw new daily doses below 10,000 a day. About 4.5 million Massachusetts residents — or about 65% of the population — are now fully vaccinated against the virus.
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