New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Chris Lisinski
State House News Service
The number of patients currently hospitalized for COVID-19 crept up over the weekend as state officials reported more than 900 new confirmed cases of the highly infectious virus and 41 more deaths.
Active hospitalizations rose to 364 in the Department of Public Health’s Sunday data report, 26 more than in Friday’s report and 51 more than the Sept. 13 update. Of those counted Sunday, 61 are in intensive care units and 34 are intubated. The rolling average number of active hospitalizations in Sunday’s report was 19 percent higher than the record low of 302 set in late August, DPH said.
The department on Saturday reported 569 new confirmed cases from 21,298 individuals newly tested by molecular tests, a positivity rate of about 2.7 percent. Sunday’s report confirmed 340 more cases from 17,399 people tested for a positivity rate of about 2 percent. Despite those increases, officials reported no change in the seven-day weighted average positive test rate, which stayed at a record low of 0.8 percent in Sunday’s report.
DPH confirmed 26 deaths linked to the virus in Saturday’s report and 15 in Sunday’s version, pushing the cumulative count of confirmed or probable COVID-19 deaths to 9,310 since the pandemic hit in March.
