New cases fall to double digits for first time since June

Colin A. Young

JUNE 7, 2021…..For the first time in nearly a year, public health authorities in Massachusetts confirmed fewer than 100 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.

The Department of Public Health said the 16,421 coronavirus tests processed during its latest 24-hour reporting period resulted in 89 positive results for COVID-19. The last day that DPH reported fewer than 100 new cases was June 30, 2020, when the agency confirmed 73 cases.

DPH also announced four recent deaths caused by COVID-19. Since February 2020, at least 662,243 people here have been infected with the coronavirus and 17,915 people (including about 360 with likely, but not test-confirmed, cases) have lost their lives to the virus.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19, which dropped below 200 for the first time since September late last week, inched up slightly in Monday’s report from DPH, which said there were 181 people hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to 178 patients 24 hours earlier.

The state’s seven-day average positive test rate remained unchanged from Sunday’s DPH update at 0.53 percent.

DPH estimated Monday that there are 4,195 active cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts, roughly equal to the population of Tisbury. There are more than 3.8 million people here who are fully vaccinated.