With an uptick of coronavirus cases in Boston, the city could soon face a red-zone rating by the state as one of the highest risk communities for COVID-19 transmission, Mayor Marty Walsh said Wednesday.
The mayor said in a press briefing outside City Hall that the city is increasing mobile testing in neighborhoods such as Grove Hall. The city is also maintaining the six-person per table seating limit for restaurants, Walsh said, despite Gov. Charlie Baker announcing earlier Wednesday that restaurants throughout the state will be able to have up to 10 guests seated per table, indoors or outdoors, starting Monday.
Cities and towns in with more than eight cases per 100,000 people are placed in the state’s red category.
Walsh said he is not concerned about more serious measures, like shutting down the city.
“The red zone for me does not make us think that we have to shut down the city of Boston. We're not at that point,” he said.
Marty Martinez, the city’s chief of health services, said there are several reasons coronavirus cases are climbing .
“When the weather's nice, more people gather, more people go out to eat, more people do things that put them in different settings. We also have a lot more college students back home,” he said at the City Hall briefing Wednesday. “We're not seeing just one thing. We, of course, have seen gatherings in places we don't want to see.”
Martinez praised local colleges and universities for their testing of students and staff.
He also stressed that while cases are rising, the infection rate among those tested remains low, at 2.7 percent.
Correction: This article has been updated to correct the neighborhood city officials are targeting for increased mobile coronavirus testing. Grove Hall is the neighborhood where mobile testing is happening, not East Boston.
