City crosses coronavirus hospitalization threshold
Boston has crossed a significant hospitalization threshold as coronavirus numbers continue to worsen in the city.
For the first time since Mayor Martin Walsh rolled out new COVID-19 metrics and “thresholds for concern” in October, the percent of empty adult hospital beds has gone below the city’s red line, with only 4% free.
That’s as of Friday, the most recent date for which data is available in Saturday’s city semiweekly report. The threshold for concern is 5% free, which the city has been approaching in fits and starts for a couple of months.
The percentages had hovered in the low 80s in October before beginning a slow and steady climb.
The other main hospitalization metric, the percent of available intensive care unit beds, crossed its own threshold a month ago, and again is trending down in the past week. That’s now at 14% available, well under the 20% line the city set out.
As testing dropped over the holidays, the seven-day average percent positive rate has continued to rise. As of the most recent complete data available, which is from last Sunday, 8.9% of tests were coming back positive. That number had steadily risen to that new peak following a dip down to close to 6% in mid December.
The city has been above its threshold of 5% for two months.
Boston has recorded 45,589 total cases and 1,033 deaths from the virus. The city of around 700,000 people estimates at least 8,591 residents have the virus.
Walsh this week extended the city’s rollback of the city’s coronavirus reopening for another three weeks. The mayor had jumped the city back to a threeweek modified version of Phase 2, Step 2 of the state’s reopening plan in December, meaning museums, movie theaters, aquariums and other indoor-gathering spaces had to shut down, though dining can continue.
On Tuesday, the day before the “pause,” was scheduled to end, Walsh extended it through Jan. 27. The mayor said that at that point they’ll re-evaluate, and he said “I hope and pray” things will be headed in the right direction and he’ll be able to let the suspension drop then.