After experiencing increases week after week for the past month, East Boston’s weekly COVID 19 positive test rate has finally decreased last week.
The weekly positive test rate has increased 16 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent and 12 percent week over week since the end of March.
However, according to the latest data released by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), last week 1,789 Eastie residents were tested for the virus last week and 5.9 percent were positive–a 20.2 percent decrease from the 7.4 percent reported by the BPHC two weeks ago.
Of the 39,168 Eastie residents tested for COVID since the pandemic began, 19.2 percent overall were found to be positive for the virus. This was an increase of half a point from the 19.1 percent reported by the BPHC two weeks ago.
Citywide, the weekly positive test rate decreased for another week and is now well below the 5 percent threshold.
According to the BPHC, 23,196 residents were tested and 3.6 percent were COVID positive–this was a 26.5 percent decrease from the 4.9 percent positive test rate reported by the BPHC two weeks ago. The 5 percent threshold has been used to plan Boston’s phased reopening strategies.
Eastie’s COVID infection rate increased by 1.3 percent last week and went from 1583.5 cases per 10,000 residents to 1604.4 cases per 10,000 residents.
An additional 98 Eastie residents contracted the virus and there are now 7,529 confirmed cases, up from the 7,431 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 1.6 percent percent last week and went from 67,685 cases to 68,795 confirmed cases in a week. Three additional Boston residents died from the virus last week and there are now 1,364 total deaths in the city from COVID.