Massachusetts now has more than 90,000 active cases of COVID-19 -- a total roughly equal to the population of Fall River -- after a weekend during which state officials counted more than 12,000 newly confirmed cases of the respiratory illness, the Department of Public Health estimated.
The department reported 7,110 new cases on Saturday and another 5,396 on Sunday. In the latter report, health officials projected the number of active cases to be 90,567, the most since it began estimating daily active caseloads in early November.
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After peaking at 8.72% Year's Day, the average positive test rate continues to inch slowly downward in Massachusetts, dropping to 7.35% in Saturday's report and then 7.21% in Sunday's.
Hospitalization figures showed movement in a positive direction, too.
The strain on hospital capacity loosened over the weekend -- with the percent of available non-ICU beds increasing from 11.5% Friday to 14.7% Sunday. The number of hospital patients with active COVID cases dropped by 86 over the weekend.
Another 167 deaths over the weekend pushed the pandemic's confirmed toll in Massachusetts to 12,875, or 13,151 when counting individuals who died with probable cases of the virus.
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