Mass. reports 168 new confirmed coronavirus cases, 8 new deaths

A swab was unwrapped at the Newton Wellesley Hospital COVID-19 testing site.Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff

The death toll from confirmed coronavirus cases in Massachusetts rose by eight to 8,933, the state Department of Public Health reported Tuesday. The number of confirmed cases climbed by 168, bringing the total to 121,214.

The seven-day rate of positive test results remained stable at 0.9 percent for the sixth consecutive day Monday, according to Tuesday’s report.

The results were released shortly after Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh touted the city’s success at bringing COVID-19 numbers down. The citywide positive test rate for the week ending Sept. 1 came in at 1.7 percent, down from 2.3 percent and 2.7 percent in the weeks prior, Walsh said.

“So we’ve seen now a couple of weeks of decline, which is a good thing,” Walsh said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. East Boston, the neighborhood with the highest positive rates, was down to 8.7 percent from 11.4 percent in previous weeks, Walsh said.

“We want to continue that downward trajectory,” the mayor said.

State officials also reported that 9,439 more people had been tested for coronavirus, bringing the total to more than 1.87 million. The number of administered tests climbed to more than 2.75 million. In Boston, Walsh said testing has nearly doubled from 1,500 to 3,000 a day in recent weeks, noting that much of the increase is due to returning college students who are required by their schools to get tested frequently.

The state also reported that new antibody tests had been completed for 44 people, bringing that total to 115,057.

Meanwhile, the three-day average of hospitalized coronavirus patients ticked up slightly from 320 on Sunday to 321 on Monday. The lowest that metric has been is 302.

The number of hospitals using surge capacity dipped slightly from three to two, and the three-day average of deaths from confirmed cases fell from 12 to eight.

In Boston, Walsh said that as of Monday, there were only 11 COVID-19 patients in intensive care in all of Boston’s hospitals, down from a peak of about 571 people in April.

“We’ve certainly come a long way as a city in that case as well,” he said.

Travis Andersen of the Globe staff contributed to this report.