After hovering in the 300 to 500 range in recent weeks, the number of new coronavirus cases in New England rose to over 600 on Thursday.
A total of 605 new cases were reported, along with 27 new deaths.
Vermont
Vermont reported its first new death from the coronavirus in 43 days on Thursday, bringing the state’s total number of deaths since the pandemic began to 57.
“We have been uniquely fortunate to have been spared such a loss for many weeks,” said Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine in a written statement.
The state also reported one new case of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.
The state is maintaining a relatively low rate of new positive cases because of “the cooperation and sacrifices of Vermonters,” he said.
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“However, while we are hopeful that together, our efforts will keep us from experiencing more illness and deaths in the future, we must be prepared for the fact that the virus is not going away anytime soon,” Levine said. “I ask everyone in Vermont to join me in honoring this latest loss by recommitting to doing everything we can to keep each other safe and prevent further spread of this virus.”
New Hampshire
As of Thursday, 6,544 people had tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, an increase of 33 from the previous day. Four new deaths were announced, bringing the total to 415. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks from 23 new cases per day on July 15 to 34 new cases per day on July 29.
Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported 304 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, but said the number was inflated because of a technical reporting error by a hospital group that caused a delay in its laboratory test results being reported to the state.
Those test results were included in Thursday’s report.
Still, the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Massachusetts has risen over the past two weeks from 249.29 new cases per day on July 15 to 266 new cases per day on July 29, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
The state also reported 15 new coronavirus-related deaths, for a total of nearly 8,400.
Hospitalizations dropped to 367, 23 fewer than the previous day. The number of patients in intensive care dropped to 55, down from 62.
Maine
Public health authorities in Maine reported one death and 27 new cases of coronavirus in the state on Thursday. Maine has had more than 3,800 reported cases of the virus and 122 deaths.
Rhode Island
The seven-day average of new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Rhode Island rose to more than 100 on Thursday, the highest it’s been since early June, according to state Department of Health statistics.
The department on Thursday reported 110 new confirmed cases and a positive rate of 2.5%.
No new deaths were reported.
The number of people in the hospital climbed to 77 as of Tuesday, the latest day for which the information was available, up from 74 the previous day. Of those, 13 were in intensive care.
Gov. Gina Raimondo on Wednesday blamed the uptick in cases on social gatherings and warned people not to party so much.
Connecticut
As of Thursday, Connecticut has had 49,670 positive cases of COVID-19, an increase of 130 since Wednesday. But Lamont said the state’s rate of infection has continued to remain around 1%, which he called “remarkably good news.” To date, 4,431 people have died in the state, an increase of six people since Wednesday. Sixty-six people were hospitalized, an increase of 13 since Wednesday.
New data also shows there were six new positive cases of COVID-19 and four COVID-associated deaths between July 22-28 in nursing homes, where 2,849 people have died in Connecticut during the pandemic.
