Massachusetts public health officials on Sunday reported 3,110 new cases of COVID-19 and 105 related deaths, just as the U.S. death toll exceeded 350,000.
The data from Sunday, based on 44,831 new molecular tests, brings the number of estimated active cases to 79,261 nationwide, according to the Department of Public Health. During the pandemic, at least 371,097 Massachusetts residents contracted COVID-19 and 12,341 died.
The seven-day weighted average rate of positive testing is 8.42%, compared to a low of 0.8% in September. Excluding positive tests collected on university and university campuses, the state’s positivity, according to DPH, is at 9.28%.
As of Sunday, at least 2,291 people are being treated in hospital for COVID-19, including 416 in intensive care.
While mitigations recommended by the government, including the use of masks, the closure of businesses and offices and the restriction of events, have helped limit distribution earlier this year, many hospitals are now overwhelmed, Drs. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading expert on infectious diseases, told ABC News.
“The deaths are real deaths,” Fauci said, opposing Donald Trump’s false claim Sunday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had blown up COVID-19 data. ‘I mean, all you have to do is go out in the trenches, go to the hospitals, look at what the health workers are dealing with. They are in many parts of the country under very stressed situations; the hospital beds were stretched. People’s beds are running up, trained staff who are now exhausted. ”
Fauci argued that strict adherence to social distance and avoiding travel are the main ways to eliminate outbreaks until vaccines become more available.
As of Thursday, Massachusetts received 285,050 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and administered 78,643 of the doses.
Nearly 200 towns and cities in Massachusetts are at high risk for spreading the virus.
Here are the cumulative COVID cases in each country:
Barnstable County: 5,708
Berkshire County: 3,020
County of Bristol: 36 074
Dukes County: 516
Essex County: 59,763
Franklin County: 1,318
Hampden County: 27 058
Hampshire County: 3 988
Middlesex County: 77,821
Nantucket County: 769
Norfolk County: 28,388
Plymouth County: 25 280
Suffolk County: 55,925
Worcester County: 44,297
Unknown location: 1,172
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