coronavirus

Coronavirus in Mass.: 25 More Deaths, 295 New Cases

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Another 25 people with the new coronavirus have died in Massachusetts and 295 new infections have been detected, including confirmed and probable cases in both metrics, health officials said Thursday.

Of those deaths, all are in people with confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. And 177 of the newly reported cases are confirmed, with the remaining 118 listed as probable.

The state's total death toll stands at 8,268 (8,053 of them confirmed) and the total number of COVID-19 cases detected at 110,897 (105,138 confirmed), according to the Department of Public Health's latest daily report.

The Department of Public Health on Monday changed how it reports coronavirus deaths, separating confirmed and probable cases after it had combined them. The move was made to improve how it is read, bringing its report more in line with other states, for users including organizations that aggregate states' COVID-19 data, the department said.

Massachusetts' coronavirus outbreak is much less severe than it was in mid-April, at the height of the virus' surge. Closely watched metrics like how many coronavirus tests are coming back positive and the average number of hospital patients with COVID-19 remain roughly 90% lower.

Still, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Thursday said that the previous day had seen the city's highest number of cases in a month.

"Yesterday's a little high, but trends are still heading in the right direction," Walsh said in a virtual address to the New England Council, amid reports of new hot spots around the country.

How Coronavirus Has Grown in Each State — in 1 Chart

New York has quickly become the epicenter of the American coronavirus outbreak. This chart shows the cumulative number of cases per state by number of days since the 10th case.

Source: The COVID Tracking Project
Credit: Amy O’Kruk/NBC

With the exception of Boston, Massachusetts is now in Phase 3, the final step in its reopening plan before the so-called "new normal" is reached, when a vaccine or effective treatment will allow all COVID-19 restrictions to be eased. The state has been slowly reopening for months, monitoring for any outbreaks that would risk the progress made so far.

The six indicators informing how fast Massachusetts can move through the four phases of reopening the state are: the COVID-19 positive test rate, the number of individuals who died from COVID-19, the number of patients with COVID-19 in hospitals, the health care system's readiness, testing capacity, contact tracing capabilities. Their statuses have held steady, with half in a positive trend and half "in progress" since June 5.

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