State health officials announced another 18 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, bringing the statewide death count to 8,547.
Officials also confirmed another 229 cases of COVID-19, for a total of at least 113,198. That is based on 15,693 new molecular tests reported on Wednesday. 2,518 new antigen tests were also reported.
There are currently 422 people hospitalized with the virus, including 64 patients in intensive care.
Health officials noted on Wednesday that they have “streamlined” some reports to show data points that are considered useful for tracking the virus at this stage of the pandemic.
“These changes include adding daily metrics to the number of positive and negative antigen and serology tests reported to DPH, moving probable cases to the weekly dashboard, and including new statistics on contact detection programs in the weekly dashboard,” she wrote.
As of Wednesday, there are at least 5,119,711 cases of COVID-19 in the United States, and roughly 163,651 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While the rate of positive testing in Massachusetts has increased over the past few weeks, recent data shows that it is starting to slow down. However, the Commonwealth is one of four states – Massachusetts, Hawaii, South Dakota and Illinois – that has seen an increase in cases over the last 14 days, according to the New York Times.
The latest issues come a day after Gov. Charlie Baker began releasing ‘enhanced’ data at the city level to see specific case counts in each state in the state. The new boundaries for large-scale outdoor gatherings also took effect Tuesday. All outdoor meetings will be limited to 50 people, instead of 100. The limit on indoor meetings will remain at 25 people.
Officials released a color-coded map of the state indicating where the infection rates are highest. Red represents places where there are more than eight cases per 100,000 people, which means residents are at high risk; yellow represents between four and eight cases, as a moderate level of risk; green represents less than four cases per 100,000 inhabitants; and white represents less than five total cases reported over the past 14 days.
Baker said his administration has reached out to community leaders in harder-hit communities to come up with strategies to reduce infections. Baker said 318 communities in Massachusetts are at or below national benchmarks for containing the virus, but added that there is still work to be done.
“Regardless of where your community sits, COVID does not go away,” Baker said.
Thirty-three communities have a moderate to high risk of increased spread, officials said. Chelsea, Lynn, Revere and Everett have the highest risk, said Health Secretary Marylou Sudders.
Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley said the color-coded metric state for tracking possible spikes in COVID cases should inform school district reopening plans.
“It is our expectation that district learning models will follow this color-coded metric unless there are polluting conditions identified after consultation with local health authorities,” Riley said. “This includes monitoring additional metrics, such as whether cases increase or decrease, the local test positivity rate and other contextual factors.”
Districts, which were tasked with making three plans for distance, hybrid and personal learning models, face a deadline of Friday to submit final plans to the state.
Coronavirus en masse: View cases, maps, charts and sources
Here are the cases mentioned by province:
Barnstable County: 1,570
Berkshire County: 626
Bristol County: 8,759
Dukes and Nantucket counties: 82
Essex County: 17,074
Franklin County: 372
Hampden County: 7,367
Hampshire County: 1,070
Middlesex County: 24,207
Norfolk County: 9,179
Plymouth County: 8,760
Suffolk County: 20,899
Worcester County: 12,927
Unknown location: 306
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