Beacon Hill and the city’s weekly COVID positive test rate continues to rise dramatically post Thanksgiving and ahead of the Christmas Holiday.
A week after Mayor Michelle Wu announced several measures to help combat the explosive rise in cases in Boston, Beacon Hill and the surrounding area’s weekly positive test rate approached 5 percent last week and the citywide weekly positive test rate neared 7 percent. Last Monday, Wu said Boston health officials will distribute 20,000 free rapid antigen home tests,offer free masks to neighborhoods with the highest rates of COVID-19 and appointed a 17-member COVID advisory board to help with the latest outbreak.
According to the weekly report released Monday by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), 2,267 Beacon Hill, North End, Back Bay, West End and Downtown residents were tested and 4.8 percent were positive. This was a 55 percent increase from the 3.1 percent that tested positive between November 29 and December 6.
The citywide weekly positive test rate also increased dramatically last week. According to the BPHC 21,26 residents were tested and 5.2 percent were COVID positive–this was a 30 percent increase from the 4 percent reported by the BPHC on November 29.
One hundred nine additional residents have been infected with the virus between December 6 and December 13 and the total number of cases in the area increased to 4,679 cases overall since the pandemic began.
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 percent last week and went from 89,745 cases to 92,481confirmed cases in a week. There were eight additional deaths in Boston from the virus in the past week and the total COVID deaths is now at 1,480.