Despite a successful vaccine rollout so far in the neighborhood, East Boston’s weekly COVID-19 positive test rate continues to climb and increased another 12 percent last week. The weekly positive test rate has increased 16 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent and now 12 percent week over week since the end of March.
According to the latest data released by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), last week, 2,012 Eastie residents were tested for the virus last week and 7.4 percent were positive–a 12 percent increase from the 6.6 percent reported by the BPHC two weeks ago.
Of the 38,657 Eastie residents tested for COVID since the pandemic began, 19.1 percent overall were found to be positive for the virus. This was an increase of half a point from the 19 percent reported by the BPHC two weeks ago.
However, positive test rates citywide decreased but fell below the five percent threshold.
According to the BPHC, 26,430 residents were tested and 4.9 percent were COVID positive–this was a two percent decrease from the 5 percent positive test rate reported by the BPHC two weeks ago. The five percent threshold has been used to plan Boston’s phased reopening strategies.
Eastie’s COVID infection rate increased by 1.9 percent last week and went from 1,553.2 cases per 10,000 residents to 1583.5 cases per 10,000 residents.
An additional 142 Eastie residents contracted the virus and there are now 7,431 confirmed cases, up from the 7,289 reported two weeks ago.
The statistics released by the BPHC as part of its weekly COVID19 report breaks down the number of cases and infection rates in each neighborhood. It also breaks down the number of cases by age, gender and race.
Citywide positive cases of coronavirus increased 3.4 percent percent last week and went from 65,474 cases to 67,685 confirmed cases in a week. Three additional Boston residents died from the virus last week and there are now 1,361 total deaths in the city from COVID.