Another 27 people with the new coronavirus have died in Massachusetts, health officials said Wednesday, confirming 142 new cases.
Those numbers bring the confirmed death toll to 8,152 and the number of confirmed cases in Massachusetts to 106,128, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's daily COVID-19 report.
There are an additional 75 probable cases listed in Wednesday's report, adding to a total of 6,219 probable cases that have not yet been confirmed. The report also listed one death among the probable cases -- there have been 216 in the state.
The Department of Public Health last week changed how it reports coronavirus deaths, separating confirmed and probable cases after it had earlier combined them. The move was made to improve how the report is read, bringing it 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.
With a few exceptions, 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.
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
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.
