Massachusetts surpasses 20,000 virus deaths The Commonwealth hit another sobering milestone Wednesday: 20,000 COVID deaths.  Health experts said that many of the 7,600 fatalities recorded in the past year could have been prevented if the victims had received any of three COVID vaccines. The news came just as The Broad Institute found that Omicron accounts for 95 percent of cases in Massachusetts, displacing the Delta variant as the dominant strain. Coronavirus readings in Boston-area wastewater, an early indicator of climbing case rates, also reached record-breaking rates this week.