BOSTON (WWLP) – State public health officials reported 5 newly confirmed deaths and 718 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts.

5 communities high-risk for COVID-19 in western Massachusetts 

The Department of Public Health report, which reports new COVID data every Thursday, listed the following 5 communities in the “red zone”: 

  • Chicopee
  • Hampden
  • Palmer
  • Southwick
  • Springfield

A red zone means more than 25 COVID cases were reported in the last 14 days.

Total COVID-19 Cases by Age Group:

  • 0-4 years: 1,042
  • 5-9 years: 1,156
  • 10-14 years: 1,396
  • 15-19 years: 2,037
  • 20-29 years: 3,988
  • 30-39 years: 3,208
  • 40-49 years: 2,402
  • 50-59 years: 2,381
  • 60-69 years: 1,245
  • 70-79 years: 366
  • 80+ years: 226

Clusters of COVID-19

There are currently 17,714 total clusters out of 23,180 confirmed cases and 1,839 close contacts. Households are the highest exposure setting with 16,847 total clusters, 7,296 new clusters between March 28 through April 24, and 9,551 ongoing clusters prior to March 28.

Testing:

According to the Department of Public Health, 36,039 new tests were performed with an overall of 21,571,842 molecular tests administered.

Antigen Tests: A total of 5,633 new individuals have tested positive with 1,205,169 total tests reported.

The current turnaround time for a molecular test is 1.24 days. The 7-day average of percent positivity is 1.60%.

Hospitalizations:

There are 516 patients are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 with 136 patients that are in intensive care units and 85 patients intubated. The average age of patients currently hospitalized is 61-years-old.

As of Tuesday, 83.5% of medical/surgical beds are occupied and 73% of ICU beds are occupied. There are currently 0 beds occupied through alternate medical sites.

In western Massachusetts, there are a total of 1,187 medical/surgical beds with 937 that are occupied. The ICU units have a total of 153 beds and 91 of them are occupied.

Confirmed COVID-19 Cases:

  • New Cases: 718
  • Total Cases: 648,967
  • Estimated Active Cases: 22,248
  • New Deaths: 5
  • Total Deaths: 17,293

Probable COVID-19 Cases

  • New Cases: 136
  • Total Cases: 43,622
  • New Deaths: 0
  • Total Deaths: 351

Hampden County:

  • New Confirmed Cases: 84
  • Total Confirmed Cases: 50,985
  • New Deaths: 0
  • Total Confirmed and Probable Deaths: 1,497

Hampshire County:

  • New Confirmed Cases: 15
  • Total Confirmed Cases: 8,988
  • New Deaths: 0
  • Total Confirmed and Probable Deaths: 291

Franklin County:

  • New Confirmed Cases: 3
  • Total Confirmed Cases: 2,486
  • New Deaths: 0
  • Total Confirmed and Probable Deaths: 113

Berkshire County:

  • New Confirmed Cases: 11
  • Total Confirmed Cases: 6,359
  • New Deaths: 0
  • Total Confirmed and Probable Deaths: 282

MassDPH COVID-19 Dashboard

Higher Education:

There are 324 new cases in the last week with a total of 17,499 confirmed COVID-19 cases in higher education institutions. In the last week there were 247,684 new tests reported with a total of 7,138,449 tests performed.