Massachusetts health officials reported 3,092 new COVID-19 cases and 12 more deaths on Friday.
This comes as 12 of the state's 14 counties are considered high risk for COVID-19, up two since last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In total, there have been 1,710,941 cases and 19,404 deaths since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The state reported 795 people hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Friday's data release, with 257 being primary cases. Of the total hospitalizations, 79 are in intensive care and 29 are intubated.
Massachusetts' COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, have declined since the omicron surge, but case counts started to rise a few weeks ago despite moving into warmer weather months.
This latest increase is being attributed to subvariants of omicron — first, it was the "stealth" omicron variant BA.2, and more recently the BA.2. 12.1 subvariant, which health officials say appears to be up to 27% more contagious than BA.2. However, there is no data to indicate it causes more serious illness.
The state's seven-day average positivity was at 8.34% Friday, compared to 8.32% on Thursday.
For context, the numbers are still 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 have also been increasing, but the latest report shows levels declining somewhat.
It's important to note that the levels of virus seen in the wastewater remain nowhere near where they were during the peak of the omicron surge.
Experts have also 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.
Nearly 14.8 million vaccine doses have now been administered in Massachusetts.
Health officials on Friday reported that a total of 5,385,308 Massachusetts residents have been fully vaccinated.
