The COVID-19 positive test rate increased by 40 percent in the Back Bay and surrounding neighborhoods but the infection rate remains steady according to Boston Public Health Commission data released last Friday.
The infection rate in the Back Bay and surrounding neighborhoods increased 3 percent in one week according to the latest city statistics.
The BPHC data released last Friday showed Back Bay, Beacon Hill, North End, West End and Downtown had an infection rate of 122.5.cases per 10,000 residents, up from 118.9 cases per 10,000 residents last Friday.
Twenty more residents became infected with the virus and the total number of cases in the area increased from 663 cases to 683 cases as of last Friday.
However, compared to other neighborhoods Back Bay, Beacon Hill, North End, West End and Downtown have the second lowest infection rates among residents second to only Fenway.
The Back Bay and surrounding neighborhoods are also still well below the city’s average infection rate of 262.6 cases per 10,000 residents.
Last week the BPHC reported that 25,009 Back Bay, Beacon Hill, North End West End and Downtown residents were tested for COVID-19 and the data shows that 2.1 percent of those tested were COVID positive. This was an increase of 40 percent from the 1.5 percent testing positive as reported last Friday. The citywide average was 4.1 percent.
Overall since the pandemic began 2.7 percent of Back Bay, Beacon Hill, North End, West End and Downtown residents were found to be COVID positive.
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 3.5 percent last week from 17,649 cases to 18,275 confirmed cases. So far 15,445 Boston residents have fully recovered from the virus and four additional Boston residents died during the week. The total of fatalities in the city is now 768.
On Tuesday at his daily press briefing Mayor Martin Walsh said that Boston continued to experience the somewhat elevated rate of coronavirus activity that we’ve seen for the past several weeks.
“Positive tests went down, from about 73 new cases per day to 69 per day,” said Mayor Walsh. “But testing was down slightly as well, with roughly 1,725 Boston residents tested each day. Thus, the positive test rate remained at 4.1%.”
Walsh added that the City continues to focus on multilingual outreach and expanded testing and health care access in communities across the city.