Massachusetts sees largest single-day case increase since April

Chris Lisinski 5:20 PM Thu

State public health officials reported 2,096 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the largest single-day total of newly confirmed infections since April as the Delta variant continues to fuel the virus’s spread.

Massachusetts had not recorded a one-day increase of 2,000 or more cases since April 14, when the Department of Public Health reported 2,004 new cases. April 19 marked the day that the full Massachusetts population, age 16 and up, became eligible for COVID-19 vaccination.

The seven-day average positive test rate inched upward from 2.42 percent in Wednesday’s report to 2.48 percent in Thursday’s report, while the number of patients in Bay State hospitals with COVID-19 remained flat at 622.

DPH also reported 18 newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, pushing the cumulative toll to 18,332 when counting those who died with probable but not test-confirmed cases.

Case and hospitalization counts have been rising for weeks amid spread of the more infectious Delta variant, but the death rate has only slightly increased and remains far below levels from earlier in the pandemic with a majority of the state vaccinated against the illness.

DPH’s weekly vaccination report released Thursday indicates that 72 percent of the statewide population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, nine percentage points higher than the national rate of 63 percent. Younger residents in particular have a higher vaccination rate in Massachusetts: 70 percent of Bay State residents between the ages of 12 and 15 years old have received at least one dose, compared to 51 percent of the same age group nationally. Overall, 4,540,587 Massachusetts residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to DPH.