East Boston and the city may be in the middle of another surge of COVID cases as the subvariant of the omicron strain, known as BA.2, takes hold across the US. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the BA-2 variant is now the most dominant strain in the country.
The new strain, according to the CDC now represented 54.9 percent of new cases for all the new cases at the end of March, up 27 percent from two weeks prior to the latest report.
The subvariant of the omicron strain is around 30 percent more infectious than the BA.1 omicron strain, which was already more transmissible than earlier strains and was responsible for the last surge at the end of 2021.
ast week,1,019 Eastie residents were tested for the virus last week and 7.1 percent were positive–this was a 54 percent increase from the 4.6 percent that tested positive as reported by the BPHC on April 11.
Seventy-two additional Eastie residents contracted the virus between April 11 and April 18 and there are now 14,818 confirmed cases in the neighborhood since the start of the pandemic.
Boston’s citywide weekly positive test rate also increased last week and is now well above the 5 percent threshold.
According to the BPHC 16,669 residents were tested citywide last week and 5.3 percent were COVID positive–this was a 19 percent increase from the 6.3 percent that reportedly tested positive for the week ending on April 11.
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 0.95 percent last week and went from 171,251 to 172,876 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.
There were four additional deaths in Boston from the virus in the past week and the total number of COVID deaths is now at 1,452.