Weekend COVID Update: 90,000 More Fully Vaccinated, Active Cases Under 30,000

Nearly 90,000 more Massachusetts adults became fully vaccinated against COVID-19 over the weekend, pushing the cumulative total above 2.3 million as the state’s health outlook brightens. Through Sunday, the Department of Public Health reported 3,361,789 people had received at least one dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine and 2,321,661 people had received their second doses or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, making them fully vaccinated.

More than 42 percent of the roughly 5.5 million adults in Massachusetts are now inoculated against the highly infectious virus four-plus months into the vaccination campaign. In the six days since the Baker administration expanded eligibility to all adults on April 19, Massachusetts administered 552,992 vaccine doses. DPH’s count of the number of Johnson & Johnson vaccines administered continued to inch up slowly over the weekend, from 204,489 reported Friday to 204,652 reported Sunday, continuing a pattern of slight daily increases reported during the federally recommended pause on J&J shots. The department alerted providers they can restart administering the J&J vaccine on Friday evening after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Food and Drug Administration recommended lifting the pause, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services tweeted.

The state’s COVID-19 trends also continued to improve over the weekend. On Sunday, the seven-day average positive test rate dropped to 1.74 percent, the lowest level since Oct. 23. DPH’s estimate of active cases dropped to 29,717 on Saturday and then 29,563 on Sunday, the first time since March 27 that it fell below 30,000. Overall, DPH counted a total of 2,471 new confirmed cases across Saturday and Sunday and 18 additional deaths linked to the virus. – Chris Lisinski/SHNS