After experiencing a 50 percent increase in the weekly COVID positive test rate between July 23 and July 30, the weekly positive test rate has decreased slightly in East Boston.
However, the citywide positive test rate has neared four percent since July 30. Health officials have been trying to get a handle on the Delta variant of the virus that has caused breakthrough infections among vaccinated residents and is decimating the unvaccinated population.
Last week, 1,339 Eastie residents were tested for the virus last week and 2.2 percent were positive–this was a decrease of 18.5 percent from the 2.7 percent reported by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) two weeks ago.
Of the 45,619 Eastie residents tested for COVID since the pandemic began, 17.2 percent overall were found to be positive for the virus. This was a decrease of 1 percent from the 17.4 percent reported by the BPHC two weeks ago.
Citywide, the weekly positive test rate increased nearly 30 percent last week. According to the BPHC 18,232 residents were tested and 3.7 percent were COVID positive–this was a 28 percent increase from the 2.9 percent reported by the BPHC two weeks ago.
Eastie’s COVID infection rate increased only 0.37 percent and the rate went from 1,667.7 cases per 10,000 residents to 1,673.8 cases per 10,000 residents.
Twenty-nine additional residents contracted the virus between July 16 and July 23 and there are now 7,855 confirmed cases in the neighborhood since the start of the pandemic.
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 one percent since July 16 and went from 72,422 cases to 73,228 confirmed cases in a week. There were no additional deaths in Boston from the virus in the past two weeks and the total COVID deaths remains at 1,400.