Unvaccinated? Beware: As state loosens restrictions, the risk of a serious COVID-19 infection may be higher than it was last summer.

One key metric: declining hospitalizations. Statewide, the number of people hospitalized each day with COVID-19 has dropped in the past month from nearly 2,000 during a brief third surge to less than 1,000. To put that in context, last fall, the figure peaked at 6,000, and the fear then was that hospitals could become overwhelmed.