The recent spike of COVID-19 infections throughout Boston is troubling to the Mayor and health care professionals and Charlestown may soon emerge as a new ‘hot spot’ according to data released by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC).
Those testing positive for the virus in Charlestown increased dramatically since last week.
Last week the BPHC reported that 7,060 Charlestown residents were tested for COVID-19 and 4.7 percent were found to be positive by last Friday–an increase of 176 percent from the 1.7 percent that tested positive two weeks ago. The citywide average is 5.7 percent of those tested and that number forced Boston Public School to suspend all in-person learning until further notice.
The data shows that overall since the pandemic began 3.9 percent of Charlestown residents tested were found to be COVID positive.
The COVID-19 infection in Charlestown increased nearly 3 percent last week but still remains below the citywide average.
According to the latest BPHC data released last Friday the neighborhood’s COVID infection rate went from 129.2 cases per 10,000 residents to 132.8 cases per 10,000 residents. The citywide average is 271.5 cases per 10,000 residents.
Over the week seven more Charlestown residents became infected with the virus bringing the total number of cases in the neighborhood to 258.
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 rose by 5.3 percent last week from 17,937 cases to 18,904 confirmed cases. So far 16,212 Boston residents have fully recovered from the virus and 8 additional Boston residents died last week–bringing the total number of fatalities in the city remains to 771.
At his daily press briefing last week Mayor Martin Walsh said parts of Dorchester, Hyde Park and Mattapan are emerging as new COVID hotspots.
“Among neighborhoods, the 02121 and 02125 zip codes of Dorchester, as well as Hyde Park and Mattapan, were the neighborhoods with the highest positive rates,” said Walsh. “East Boston and the 02122 and 02124 zip codes of Dorchester saw their rates go down, but remain above the citywide average. Roxbury remains above the citywide average as well.”
The Mayor said that, overall, the numbers we are seeing in positive tests and hospital admissions are numbers the city has not seen since June, when Boston was coming down from the peak of COVID-19 cases.
“In response, we are strengthening our focus on prevention, community outreach, and support while also developing enforcement strategies for COVID guidelines,” he said.