MA Coronavirus Daily Case Count Highest In Months

BOSTON — An additional 753 people tested positive for the coronavirus, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported Friday, bringing the statewide total to 131,214.

The numbers mark the largest daily increase since spring.

There were 10 people who died across the commonwealth because of complications relating to it, according to the daily report. The number of new cases was also above 700, Thursday, with the bulk of the cases coming from Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex counties.

The number of cases has been ticking upward, as have the number of people in hospitals because of the virus.

There were 21,451 new molecular tests conducted, bringing the percent positive rate to 1.7 percent, up from 0.8 percent in early September.

Health officials say positive test results need to stay below 5 percent for two weeks or longer and, preferably, be closer to 2 percent, for states to safely ease restrictions.

This comes the day after a new report showed Massachusetts has spent $838 million of the $1.1 billion it set aside in a supplemental budget bill for fighting the coronavirus crisis.

The total number of hospitalizations, which had been rising daily for the past week, ticked downward overall with 421 people in the hospital because of the virus. Of those in the hospital 79 people are in the ICU and 34 patients are intubated.

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