Charlestown’s COVID-19 infection rate decreased 1.3 percent last week and still remains well below the citywide average.
After posting a rise of 3.5 percent in the neighborhood’s infection three weeks ago, the infection rate dropped for the first time according to the latest data released by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) on Friday.
According to the BPHC’s data the neighborhood’s COVID infection rate went from 122.6 cases per 10,000 residents to 121 cases per 10,000 residents. The citywide average is 241.8 cases per 10,000 residents.
Last week the BPHC reported that 5,391 residents were tested for COVID-19 and the data shows that overall since the pandemic began only 4.5 percent of residents tested were found to be COVID positive. The overall citywide average is 7.5 percent since the pandemic began.
Citywide positive cases of coronavirus rose only 2.4 percent last week from 16,310 cases to 16,703 cases. So far 13,467 Boston residents have fully recovered from the virus and two additional residents died last week bringing the total of fatalities in the city to 761.
During his daily press briefing on the virus, the Mayor highlighted one notable trend.
“Forty-eight percent of new cases in the last two weeks of data are in people under the age of 30,” said Walsh.
Walsh stressed that young people must be especially cautious, in order to protect themselves and the rest of the community as well, including older populations who tend to experience more severe symptoms if they contract the virus.