Massachusetts health officials report 2,716 new COVID cases, 15 more deaths

There are 2,716 new cases of COVID-19[female[femininein Massachusetts and 15 others have died from the virus, state health officials said on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s cases include a backlog of test results from September 10 to 13 that had not previously been reported to the Department of Public Health.

The new cases, based on 119,979 molecular tests, bring the seven-day average of positive tests to 2.44%, a slight increase from the 2.28% reported on Tuesday, according to data from the Department of Public Health.

So far during the pandemic, at least 734,280 Massachusetts residents have tested positive for the coronavirus and 18,030 have died.

As of Wednesday, 706 people are hospitalized with the virus, including 173 patients in intensive care and 93 intubated. That’s a small decrease from the 716 people hospitalized on Tuesday. This is a significant increase from the pandemic low reached in July, when the seven-day average was 84 patients hospitalized with the virus.

Of the COVID patients currently in hospital, 200 are reported to be fully vaccinated against COVID, according to data from the DPH.

About 65% of the state’s total population is now fully vaccinated, with 9,319,250 residents having received both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine alone. A total of 9,506 new doses of the vaccine have been reported since Tuesday, the data showed.

The majority of new COVID cases in Massachusetts involve unvaccinated individuals. Tuesday, DPH reported 3,919 additional COVID cases among those vaccinated, known as breakthrough cases, down from the 4,415 reported the week before. As of September 11, there were 4,549,497 fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts and 27,777 cases in people vaccinated. Of those 27,777 cases, 823 resulted in hospitalization and 194 cases resulted in death, according to DPH.

In Springfield, city officials on Wednesday announced they had appointed the first three members of a COVID-19 Youth Council promote vaccination among their peers.

Worcester seeks to boost vaccination rates with four youth vaccination clinics. City officials said 81% of people 30 and older are fully vaccinated, compared to 44% for people 12 to 29.

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