MA Town-By-Town COVID-19: Hospitalization Rate Down 11%

MASSACHUSETTS — Several key coronavirus metrics the state uses to assess the threat of the pandemic continued heading in the right direction for a month straight, according to data released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Thursday.

Coronavirus infection rates in Massachusetts continued declining over the last two weeks, as did hospitalizations. However, death rates increased since last week, according to state data. Positivity rates remained about the same.

On Thursday, state data showed COVID-19 continue to decrease at the community level, with just 58 cities and towns seeing rates increase. On Thursday, Massachusetts also saw 257 communities with decreasing COVID-19 rates and 21 with no change. Last week, 286 towns had decreasing COVID-19 rates, but overall about 77 percent of communities statewide saw the virus waning at the local level.

According to state COVID-19 data, the seven-day positive test rate also increased slightly from 5.5 percent last week to 5.53 percent Thursday. In Massachusetts, 71 communities saw the rate increase, 20 had no change, and 245 saw it drop, the public health department said.

The average hospitalizations went from 521.3 last week to 465.3. As of Wednesday, 459 Massachusetts residents were hospitalized with COVID-19.

As for deaths, there were 9 deaths per day over the last week, up from 7.7 a week ago.

The Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 1,700 new coronavirus cases, six deaths and 7,188 vaccine doses administered.

The weekly average case count was 1,004 daily cases, down from 1,110.4 last week. At the early January peak of the omicron surge, the state reported more than 23,000 average daily cases.

The latest state vaccine report showed the number of fully vaccinated residents rose to more than 5.4 million. Booster doses were given to about 3.11 million residents.

Community-Level Data

To use this map, zoom in and click on a pin to see that community's coronavirus vaccination rate or case numbers. You can also view the town-by-town coronavirus data here

Colors on the map represented if a community's case counts were decreasing, staying the same, or increasing. Blue dots meant a community had a lower case count from the previous week. Yellow meant they stayed the same, and red meant higher.

The data also did not include 1,651 of the state's cases because state health officials could not determine which communities the patients lived in.

Other Key Coronavirus Metrics

Of the 459 hospitalized patients, 33 were in intensive care Wednesday, down 40 from a week ago, state health officials said. Seventeen patients were intubated statewide.

According to the Department of Public Health, 31 percent of the state's coronavirus hospitalizations over the last week were "primarily" hospitalized for the virus, versus "incidental" cases who tested positive while hospitalized for another reason. Sixty-one percent of the state's hospitalized patients on Wednesday were vaccinated.

To date, there have been 1,755,678 confirmed cases and 19,657 deaths statewide since the pandemic began.

The state reported 35,022 new tests Thursday, bringing the total administered to about 45.84 million.

The data included coronavirus cases for all Massachusetts communities, except for those with populations under 50,000 and those with 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.