Charlestown weekly positive test rate continues to rise as the highly infectious BA.5 omicron sub variant grips the nation.
Last week, the Biden administration renewed the COVID public-health emergency through mid-October as the city, state, and nation are in the midst of the U.S.’s second-largest surge since the pandemic began in 2020. On the heels of the public-health emergency extension, the CDC said COVID hospital admissions would increase more than fourfold by August 5.
According to the latest data by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) Charlestown’s weekly COVID infection rate has been steadily increasing for over a month.
Last week, 289 Charlestown residents were tested for the virus last week and 12.1 percent were positive–this was a 16 percent increase from the 10.4 percent that tested positive between July 4 and July 11.
Thirty-five additional Charlestown residents contracted the virus between July 11 and July 18 and there have now been 4,537 confirmed cases in the neighborhood since the start of the pandemic.
Boston’s citywide weekly positive test rate also increased last week.
According to the BPHC, 11,189 Boston residents tested citywide and 9.8 percent were positive—a 21 percent increase from the 8.1 percent that tested positive between July 4 and July 11.
Adult COVID-19 Hospitalizations in Boston are now averaging 141.7 per day. This metric helps the BPHC understand the burden of serious COVID-19 cases among adults resulting in inpatient care in Boston hospitals. It includes the total number of adult hospitalizations among Boston and non-Boston residents for COVID-19.
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 last week and went from 195,825 to 196,932 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 1,495.