MA Town-By-Town COVID-19: Positive Test Rate Sees Massive Drop

MASSACHUSETTS — The omicron surge continued to decline in the vast majority of Massachusetts communities, according to the latest town-by-town Department of Public Health data released Thursday.

All key COVID-19 metrics, including deaths, cases and hospitalizations, declined statewide. The seven-day positive test rate dropped from 9.48 to 5.89 percent over the last week.

Nearly 95 percent of communities reported falling case counts, and more than 88 percent saw falling positive rates.

The Department of Public Health reported 4,829 new coronavirus cases, 59 deaths and 16,135 vaccine doses administered Thursday.

The seven-day average number of hospitalized patients was 2,067.9, down from 2,824 the week before.

The weekly average case count was 3,054.7 daily cases, down more than 50 percent from 6,013.4 a week before. At the end of December, the state was reporting more than 7,000 average daily cases.

There were 53.5 deaths per day over the last week, down from 60.6 a week ago.

Vaccines

The latest vaccine report showed the number of fully vaccinated residents rose to 5.21 million. Booster doses were given to 2.7 million residents.

In 96 communities, more than half of residents have received a booster shot.

Community-Level Data

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

Some communities were 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 was available for one community with a particularly low population, Gosnold.

The data also did not include 2,285 of the state's cases because state health officials could not determine which communities the patients lived in. Vaccination rates in some communities, such as Buckland and Lincoln, may be skewed by reporting issues such as federal facilities or misalignment between ZIP code and municipal boundaries.

Other Key Coronavirus Metrics

Of 1,661 hospitalized patients, 273 were in intensive care Wednesday, down 123 from a week before.

The positive test rate over the last two weeks fell in 310 — or 88.31 percent — of the 351 communities in the state. The rate rose in 20 — or 5.7 percent — of the communities. It held steady in the rest. More than 95 percent of communities reported falling case counts.

To date, there have been 1,498,053 confirmed cases and 21,692 deaths statewide since the pandemic began.

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The state reported 98,132 new tests Thursday, bringing the total administered to 39.4 million.
The data included coronavirus cases for all Massachusetts communities, except for those with populations under 50,000 and where there were 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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