Gov. Baker: More Than 401,000 COVID-19 Tests Conducted

Gov. Charlie Baker visited a drive-through testing site at Stanley Street Treatment and Resources in Fall River Wednesday afternoon. The site is one of 18 community health centers to expand COVID-19 testing capacity in recent weeks through a partnership with the Baker-Polito Administration and Quest Diagnostics.

Testing was the theme of Wednesday’s Daily Briefing…

Gov. Baker said during his briefing that as a state we have conducted more than 401,000 COVID-19 tests with more than 6,700 reported yesterday. Around 870 tests were positive, roughly a 13 percent rate of positive tests. The governor said that the number remains in the general vicinity of 10 percent, which is where we have been for the past week or ten days and significantly below the 20 and 30 percent positive test rates we had when testing begin at the end of March and the beginning of April.

The governor also said that the state still has over 3,000 hospitalized residents due to COVID-19, but the state overall has seen a 20 percent decrease of people who have been in the hospital since the number peaked in mid-April.

Locally, Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield reported caring for five patients, with four of them being treated in the intensive care unit as of Tuesday. Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington reported that it had two cases, with none in ICU, also as of Tuesday.