The nation’s COVID-19 death toll topped half a million on Monday, and in Massachusetts, more than a million people have now received at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Monday’s vaccine report from the Department of Public Health showed that 399,638 people have now received both doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, and 1,044,210 have received at least one dose. The combined total 1.44 million doses administered is up from 1.14 million a week ago.
Meanwhile, the DPH also reported 1,150 new cases of COVID-19, coming from 49,929 new tests. Over the weekend, the seven-day positive test rate fell below 2 percent for the first time in 2021, and it was 1.9 percent on Monday. COVID-19 hospitalizations also continued to decline, falling to 888 from 990 in Friday’s report.
The 26 recent deaths that public health officials reported Monday bring the pandemic’s fatality count in Massachusetts to 15,534. When adding in the 319 deaths among people with probable cases of the respiratory disease, a total of 15,853 people in Massachusetts have lost their lives to COVID-19 since last March.
Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday plans to testify before the Legislature’s COVID-19 and Emergency Management and Preparedness Committee at an oversight hearing probing the state’s vaccine rollout. One area that panel could delve into is the state’s contract with online appointment vendor PrepMod, which took responsibility for the crash last week of the vaccine-booking website.
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