Massachusetts public health officials reported 1,940 new cases of COVID-19 and announced the deaths of 157 more residents from the viral infection on Thursday.

Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported Feb. 1, 62,205 Massachusetts residents have tested positive for the virus and 3,562 residents have died since the first COVID-19 death here was announced March 20. The 1,940 new cases reported Thursday resulted from 10,029 tests conducted, meaning just more than 19 percent of tests conducted during the 24-hour reporting period came back positive.

Gov. Charlie Baker has been pointing to that metric, which has hung in the high teens for a few days after a high-water mark of about 30 percent, in recent press conferences as an indication that mitigation efforts have worked.

On Thursday, he said the lower rate "is a good sign because we test a lot more than we did a few weeks ago and we've also tried to test in places where we're particularly concerned about the potential of community and organizational spread."

DPH said Thursday that 6 percent of all cases in Massachusetts -- not just active cases since the state does not report the number of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 -- are currently hospitalized. There are 3,803 people currently hospitalized, 53 fewer than were hospitalized as of Wednesday's report.