Young adults represent sizable share of new cases as MA approaches 750,000 cases

By Colin A. Young
State House News Service

SEPT. 22, 2021…..Of the 23,212 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Massachusetts over the last two weeks, more than 20 percent occurred in people in their 20s and almost 13 percent of the cases were detected in children younger than 10, the Department of Public Health said Wednesday.

DPH announced 1,821 new cases of COVID-19 and 24 confirmed COVID-19 deaths Wednesday, raising the state’s total case count to 745,771 infections since February 2020 and increasing the virus’ death toll to 18,504 people when counting almost 400 people who died with suspected cases of the coronavirus.

People in their 20s accounted for 4,999 of the new COVID-19 cases detected in the last two weeks here, followed by 3,616 cases among people in their 30s. Together, people in their 20s or 30s accounted for more than a third of all cases in the last 14 days.

There were 1,224 babies and kids four years old and younger infected with the coronavirus in the last two weeks and another 1,753 cases among kids between the ages of five and nine, DPH said. At the other end of the age spectrum, people 80 years old or older accounted for 521 coronavirus cases in the last two weeks and 963 people in their 70s became infected.

DPH’s report Wednesday also showed that the state’s seven-day average positive test rate inched up from 2.07 percent to 2.14 percent and that the number of people hospitalized in Massachusetts with COVID-19 dropped from 636 patients in Tuesday’s report to 618 patients in Wednesday’s update.