BOSTON — The week began Monday with the state tracking 22,023 active cases of COVID-19 after public health officials reported 4,009 new cases of the coronavirus over the weekend and 43 new confirmed deaths from the disease.
The Department of Public Health reported on Sunday that 568 people were in the hospital for confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 144 patients who were in intensive care units. That was an increase of 55 patients hospitalized with the virus since Friday and 26 patients newly being treated in ICUs around the state.
The state reported a combined 172,858 new molecular tests on Saturday and Sunday, which put the state’s seven-day average positivity rate at 2.27%. When removing repeat higher education testing from the equation, the positivity rate over the past week was 3.92%.
This past weekend was the first since Gov. Charlie Baker put in place a new mandatory mask policy in public, and began imposing curfews on some businesses, forcing them to close by 9:30 p.m. so that people have time to return home and comply with the new statewide advisory that people remain in their homes from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m.
The new guidelines were put in place to slow what Baker has newly described as a second surge of COVID-19, with the seven-day average of new confirmed cases up 717% from a low of 157 a day and the average number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 over the past week up 222% from a low of 155.
The death toll from the virus now stands at 9,923 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19.
