Massachusetts reported 262 new confirmed coronavirus cases Thursday and an additional 12 deaths.
There have now been 8,657 confirmed deaths and 115,310 cases, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive, on average, is down to 1.3%, according to the report.
The total number of coronavirus deaths in the daily COVID-19 report, however, is listed as 8,888, which would indicate there are 231 more deaths that are considered probable at this time.
Earlier in the day, Gov. Charlie Baker announced that Massachusetts is planning to roll out a rapid response testing program to be made available in schools statewide. This comes as students prepare to go back to school in many districts.
The testing program, which will be rolled out by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Department of Public Health, will release specific guidance detailing how the program will function.
"This program can be deployed to test students within a particular classroom or other groups. A local health department and the Department of Public Health at the state level will work with a local school district to determine certain conditions are met, and that this program should be deployed," Baker said.
