For the second straight week, Worcester County has set a new mark for the highest number of new coronavirus cases in a week, this time beating the previous record by 10%.
Worcester County recorded 2,365 new weekly cases, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported Friday, a slightly less steep week-to-week increase than earlier in November but nonetheless the highest seven-day number of cases yet recorded for the county.
Massachusetts also set the same high mark, with 17,766 new weekly cases. The state’s total now stands at 207,284, the state reported Friday. Worcester County has had 23,611 cases since the pandemic began.
Worcester County’s COVID death toll now stands at 1,261, with 33 newly reported deaths in the past week. Deaths, typically a lagging indicator a few weeks behind a spike in cases, has not risen to nearly the same levels as during the spring peak, with health officials crediting a better knowledge of how the virus works as well as a generally younger demographic getting the virus that’s less likely to have pre-existing conditions.
Statewide, deaths rose in the latest seven-day stretch by 200 to hit 10,635.
Across Central Massachusetts, 19 cities and towns had two-week rates of new cases exceeding the state average of 34.9 per 100,000. That includes a rate of 153.3, one of the state’s highest, in Shirley, which includes the town’s houses of correction.
The City of Worcester reported its weekly data on Wednesday, a day ahead of normal because of Thanksgiving. The six-day number of cases was 550, a rate slightly behind the previous full-week number, which was a record high for the city, not counting cases reported after the spring peak due to a testing and reporting error.
Worcester had 9,115 total cases through Nov. 25.
Hospitalizations remain far below the state’s spring peak but have doubled over the course of November, standing at nearly 1,000, the state reported Friday. At the worst of the spring peak, hospitalizations topped out at nearly 4,000.
Nationally, more than 13 million cases have been recorded, and the country surpassed 200,000 new daily cases for the first time on Friday, according to tallies from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and The New York Times. The United States has nearly 267,000 virus-related deaths, by far the world’s highest. Worldwide, cases were approaching 63 million on Monday morning, with nearly 1.5 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
