New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Chris Lisinski
State House News Service
Massachusetts public health officials on Thursday reported the highest one-day total of newly confirmed COVID-19 infections since the pandemic began, though the rolling average positive test rate declined slightly.
The 7,136 cases in Thursday’s update lagged only the number of new infections in Dec. 26 and Jan. 2 daily reports — 7,424 and 8,542, respectively — both of which covered two days of data because they immediately followed holidays when reports were not published.
While new cases have skyrocketed in Massachusetts in recent months, far more tests are being performed than during the first surge in the spring, and the DPH counted 108,412 new tests in Thursday’s report. The seven-day average percent positivity rate dropped from 8.25 percent on Wednesday to 7.83 percent on Thursday. With 71 more fatalities among those with confirmed COVID-19 cases, the cumulative death toll in Massachusetts increased to 12,634 on Thursday, or 12,909 when counting those who died with probable infections.
Thirty fewer patients in Massachusetts hospitals had COVID-19 Thursday as a day earlier, but the state’s health infrastructure remains enormously strained, and only about 11 percent of all non-ICU beds were available in Thursday’s report.
