On a day the U.S. passed a grim milestone by surpassing 100,000 deaths, Massachusetts reported 74 new coronavirus fatalities of its own Wednesday to bring the statewide total to 6,547.
The state also reported 547 new coronavirus cases, for a total of 94,220.
Wednesday was the seventh day in a row that the state reported fewer than 100 deaths.
Massachusetts has exited the "surge" of the coronavirus and the metrics on the virus are "trending in the right direction," Gov. Charlie Baker said earlier this week.
The Department of Public Health's report contains six indicators that are informing how fast Massachusetts can move through the four phases of its reopening plan. They 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.
Once again, none of the six indicators was trending negatively Wednesday, and two were trending positively: the positive test rate and the testing capacity. All of the other four metrics were rated "in progress," the intermediate metric.
Over 2,100 people remain hospitalized with the coronavirus in Massachusetts, including 556 in intensive care.
Massachusetts has for weeks been one of the epicenters of COVID-19 in the U.S. It has the fourth-most cases among all states and third-most deaths.
Baker and other health officials have said Massachusetts' high tallies may be due to the state testing among the most residents per capita in the country -- over 550,000 tests have been conducted as of Wednesday, according to the Department of Public Health.
