Massachusetts reported 1,831 new coronavirus cases Sunday, a decline from the 2,107 new infections reported Saturday. The death toll rose by 8.
Sunday’s total marks the third day this week cases have dipped below 2,000. Daily new cases have regularly surpassed 2,000 in recent weeks, after falling below that benchmark each day between Feb. 12 and March 26.
The state reports two COVID-19 positivity rates—one with higher education testing and one without. On Sunday the seven-day test positivity rate with higher education removed sat at 3.9, equivalent to the rate reported this time last week. The rate that includes higher education sits at 2.2 percent.
The state reported 698 total hospitalizations Sunday, down from the 707 reported this time last week. Hospitalizations have slowly begun rising over the past three weeks after declining substantially over the course of February and March following a spike amid the state’s wintertime surge. Last Thursday marked the first time hospitalizations reached 700 since March 4.
On Sunday, Massachusetts reported 79,086 new vaccinations, bringing the state’s total to 4,501,629. Nearly one fourth of the state’s population is now fully inoculated against COVID-19—meaning they have received both doses of the vaccines manufactured by Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Emerson reported three new positive COVID-19 tests Friday, bringing the college’s total across four days of testing to 20 and total over the last nine days of testing to 46—just under a third of the semester’s total of 151.
Emerson shifted from a manual data reporting process to an automatic one on Oct. 13. The decision followed a Beacon investigation that revealed a string of inaccuracies in the data reported by the college.
The college’s dashboard is updated daily Monday through Friday. When it was first launched in August, the college opted for weekly updates before eventually shifting to twice weekly and then daily updates. Tabs for hospitalizations and the number of “invalid” results received by community members have since been removed from the dashboard after testing began in August. Invalid results are typically a result of user error and require re-testing.
