Another 30 People With Coronavirus Have Died in Mass., 264 More Cases

Thirty more people with the coronavirus have died in Massachusetts and 264 new infections have been detected, including confirmed and probable cases in both metrics, health officials said Wednesday.

Of those deaths, all are in people with confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. And 162 of the newly reported cases are confirmed, with the remaining 102 listed as probable.

The state's total death toll stands at 8,243 (8,028 of them confirmed) and the total number of COVID-19 cases detected at 110,612 (104,961 confirmed), according to the Department of Public Health's latest daily report.

The Department of Public Health on Monday changed how it reports coronavirus deaths, separating confirmed and probable cases after it had combined them. The move was made to improve how it is read, bringing its report more in line with other states, for users including organizations that aggregate states' COVID-19 data, the department said.

Massachusetts' coronavirus outbreak is much less severe than it was in mid-April, at the height of the virus' surge. Closely watched metrics like how many coronavirus tests are coming back positive and the average number of hospital patients with COVID-19 remain roughly 90% lower.

Still, Gov. Charlie Baker announced on Wednesday a new coronavirus testing initiative for eight communities that have seen high rates of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.

With the exception of Boston, Massachusetts is now in Phase 3, the final step in its reopening plan before the so-called "new normal" is reached, when a vaccine or effective treatment will allow all COVID-19 restrictions to be eased. The state has been slowly reopening for months, monitoring for any outbreaks that would risk the progress made so far.

How Coronavirus Has Grown in Each State — in 1 Chart

This graph shows how the number of coronavirus cases have grown in Massachusetts, in the context of the other U.S. states, dating to the early days of the pandemic. It shows how many cases have been diagnosed each day in each state since their 500th cases. Select a state from the dropdown to highlight its track.

Source: The COVID Tracking Project
Credit: Amy O’Kruk/NBC

The six indicators informing how fast Massachusetts can move through the four phases of reopening the state are: the COVID-19 positive test rate, the number of individuals who died from COVID-19, the number of patients with COVID-19 in hospitals, the health care system's readiness, testing capacity, contact tracing capabilities. Their statuses have held steady, with half in a positive trend and half "in progress" since June 5.