Throughout June and the beginning of July COVID infections were virtually nonexistent in the neighborhood with an average of 0.10 percent of residents testing positive week after week.
However, with new variants of the virus penetrating the US, Beacon Hill, North End, Back Bay, West End and Downtown are not immune to the recent spikes in cases that are sweeping the US and infecting unvaccinated people with avengence.
According to the weekly report released last Friday released by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), 1,104 Beacon Hill, North End, Back Bay, West End and Downtown residents were tested and 1.3 percent were positive. This was a whopping 1,200 percent increase from the 0.1 percent of residents that tested positive on June 25.
Overall since the pandemic started 55,690 Beacon Hill, North End, Back Bay, West End and Downtown residents have been tested for COVID-19 and the data shows that 6.4 percent of those tested were COVID positive. This was a 1.5 percentage decrease from the 6.5 reported by the BPHC on June 25.
Citywide, the weekly positive test rate increased. According to the BPHC 11,704 residents were tested and 1.5 percent were COVID positive–this was a 275 percent increase from the 0.4 percent reported by the BPHC two weeks ago.
The BPHC data released last Friday showed Beacon Hill, North End, Back Bay, West End and Downtown had an infection rate of 638.8 cases per 10,000 residents–roughly a 1 percent increase from the 633.6 cases per 10,000 residents reported on June 25.
Twenty-nine additional residents have been infected with the virus since late June and the total number of cases in the area increased to 3,560 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 0.6 percent since July 9 and went from 70,998 cases to 71,457 confirmed cases in a week. Two additional Boston residents died from the virus in the past two weeks and there are now 1,395 total deaths in the city from COVID.