COVID cases ease up in Massachusetts; breakthrough infections finally reported

The COVID-19 count continues to fall, with 13,945 cases recorded as the weekend hits.

State health officials report 102 deaths bringing the total for the pandemic to 20,884 lives lost to coronavirus in Massachusetts as of Friday.

Health officials also caught up to breakthrough cases for those already vaccinated, reporting an added 86,450 infections. A network connectivity glitch held back that data, which is usually posted on Tuesdays.

As for hospitalizations, 3,105 infected people are now patients, with 446 in ICUs, the daily COVID-19 tracker reads.

The Boston-area COVID-19 wastewater tracker data during the last week has taken a plunge, signaling that virus cases in the community would soon follow that downward trend.

State health officials have been urging people to get a booster shot as soon as possible to get more protection from the extremely contagious omicron variant.

Overall, 348,510 fully vaccinated people have tested positive for the virus, according to new data from the state Department of Public Health. That’s 6.8% of the more than 5.1 million fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts.

The 348,510 overall cases is an increase of 86,450 breakthrough infections from last week.

Breakthrough hospitalizations have been accounting for about 45% of current COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last couple of weeks. Those who are unvaccinated are at a much higher risk for a severe case and hospitalization.

There have been 5,437 hospitalizations among fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts, which represents 0.11% of those who are fully vaccinated.

The 5,437 total patients is a one-week increase of 884 fully vaxxed patients. That’s up from the previous weekly increase of 644 fully vaccinated patients. The week before that was 370 fully vaccinated patients.

Out of the fully vaccinated, 1,224 have died.