The Department of Public Health reported 319 newly confirmed coronavirus cases Thursday.
A total of 113,517 cases have been reported so far in Massachusetts and 21 new deaths elevating the confirmed virus-related death toll to 8,568 statewide.
Over an hour after health officials released the new numbers, a spokesperson for the DPH issued a statement reading:
“Today’s testing numbers include a large amount of newly reported negative test results from one national lab, tests conducted over the last several months. These negative test results have now been assigned retrospectively to the appropriate date of test. The Department has been working to increase lab testing capacity within Massachusetts to mitigate various delayed reporting issues by some national commercial laboratories.”
On July 15, the Trump administration ordered hospitals to send their data to the White House instead of first being sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Four hundred and one people are currently hospitalized, down 21 from Wednesday’s report. Sixty-one are currently receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit.
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Symptoms of coronavirus include fever, cough, and shortness of breath, according to the CDC. Reported worldwide illnesses have ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and death.
The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person, typically between people who are in close contact with one another and via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
The average age of coronavirus patient is 51-years-old and the average age of death is 82.
On June 30, the state reported zero new coronavirus deaths for the first time in months.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s latest coronavirus quarantine update shows that about 74,610 individuals have completed their quarantine while about 2,773 remain.
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