Massachusetts health officials reported 10,250 new COVID-19 cases and 42 new deaths in the last week, with the new data released Thursday.
In total, there have been 1,793,437 cases and 19,860 deaths since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The state reported 189 people primarily hospitalized for COVID-19 and a total of 589 hospitalized patients who have the virus. Of the total hospitalizations, 52 are in intensive care and 20 are intubated.
Massachusetts' COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, have been trending up. Experts have warned that this summer will be more challenging than last year, with a much higher level of COVID-19 in Massachusetts.
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More on the COVID-19 pandemic
Most of eastern Massachusetts is at medium risk for COVID-19 this week, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with of the rest of the state at low risk.
The most recent spring peak in cases was attributed to subvariants of omicron — first, it was the "stealth" omicron variant BA.2, and more recently the BA.2. 12.1 subvariant. Newer variants have since been identified in New England, including the BA.5 and BA.2.75. The BA.5 variant seems to be driving a new wave of infections, though it is too soon to determine what the result of that might be.
The state's seven-day average positivity was at 8.17% Thursday, compared to 7.87% last week.
This spring bump was well below the types of case counts and hospitalizations seen at height of the omicron surge in January, when average daily case counts reached over 28,000 and hospitalizations peaked at around 3,300.
COVID levels in wastewater, as reported by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority's tracking system show numbers increasing in the Boston area. They are still down from that spring bump, where the seven-day average came in around 1,300 RNA copies/mL. The levels of virus seen in the wastewater also remain nowhere near where they were during the peak of the omicron surge.
Experts have said that case count reporting became a less accurate indicator during the omicron surge, given the difficulties in getting tested. Now, widespread use of rapid tests means that some results go unreported.
More than 15 million vaccine doses have now been administered in Massachusetts.
