Boston COVID Data 'Moving In The Right Direction'

Data tracking the COVID-19 outbreak in Boston is "moving in the right direction," according to the top public health official working for the city.

Chief of Health and Human Services Marty Martinez said COVID-19 hospitalizations are sitting at about 150, down from roughly 300 about six to eight weeks ago.

"We've definitely seen a decrease, it's moving in the right direction, which is really important," Martinez said at a Thursday afternoon press conference. "Data has driven us and that's not going to change. We're going to continue to do that. And the data is moving in the right direction to get past COVID."

At the same press conference, Mayor Marty Walsh said as of Thursday, the city reported 201 new confirmed cases and five deaths. The community positivity rate is 4.2 percent, the lowest rate since October, Walsh said.

"Daily new cases have continued to go down since early January. So we've seen a steady decline now for about a month," the mayor said. "Our testing was up, our positivity rate was down. Those trends are the ones that we want to see continue, as we continue to get people tested."

Martinez also said starting next week, the city will start releasing Boston-specific vaccination data broken down by neighborhoods, race, and ethnicity.