Charlestown and the city are in the middle of another COVID surge as nearly 1 out of every 10 residents tested last week in the neighborhood were positive.
Health experts are saying the new subvariant of the omicron strain, known as BA.2, is now the dominant strain in the US and 30 percent more infectious than the BA.1 omicron strain responsible for the last surge.
Last week, 467 Charlestown residents were tested for the virus last week and 9.8 percent were positive–this was an 8 percent increase from the 9.1 percent that tested positive as reported by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) on April 18.
Forty six additional Charlestown residents contracted the virus between April 18 and April 25 and there are now 3,910 confirmed cases in the neighborhood since the start of the pandemic.
Boston’s citywide weekly positive test rate also increased last week and remains well above the 5 percent threshold.
According to the BPHC 15,808 residents were tested citywide last week and 6.9 percent were COVID positive–this was a 30 percent increase from the 5.3 percent that reportedly tested positive for the week ending on April 18.
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 1.60 percent last week and went from 172,876 to 175,628 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.
There were two additional deaths in Boston from the virus in the past week and the total number of COVID deaths is now at 1,454.