Massachusetts health officials reported 6,804 new COVID-19 cases and 125 new deaths in the last week, with the new data released Thursday.
In total, there have been 1,994,476 cases and 21,658 deaths since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Massachusetts' COVID data, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, shows a decrease in overall cases and hospitalization. It's reported that as of Jan. 17 there were 349 people primarily hospitalized for COVID-19 and a total of 1,060 hospitalized patients who have the virus. Of the total hospitalizations, 109 were in intensive care and 50 were intubated.
Massachusetts COVID-19 wastewater data from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has been seeing levels the highest they've been since last winter, though they appear to be trending down in areas south of Boston.
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
The state's seven-day average positivity was listed at 10.86% Thursday, compared to 12.25% last week.
More on COVID-19
Despite recent case increases, we remain well below the types of case counts and hospitalizations seen at height of the omicron surge at the beginning of 2022, when average daily case counts reached over 28,000 and hospitalizations peaked at around 3,300.
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.
Millions of vaccine doses have been administered in Massachusetts.
