Acting Mayor Kim Janey held a press conference on May 11, where she announced some updates to the city’s reopening plans, as well as spoke about the “encouraging” public health data in the city regarding COVID-19.
“There is no higher priority in my administration than the equitable recovery from this pandemic,” Janey said, later adding that “the latest data show encouraging trends.”
Janey said that over the past two weeks, new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Boston have dropped by 38 percent. There have been an average of 80.1 new positive cases per day, and the citywide positivity rate has decreased by 1.3 points to 2.4 percent citywide, Janey said.
She added that each of the city’s neighborhoods had a positivity rate under 4.3 percent, which is below the threshold of five percent.
“There’s also encouraging news in our hospitals,” Janey said. “COVID-related ER visits decreased by six percent over a two week period,” she said. She also said that there are currently 75 Bostonians hospitalized with COVID-19, which is “one of the lowest numbers recorded since the start of the pandemic.”
On the vaccine front, “more than 64 percent of all residents age 16 and older have gotten at least one shot,” Janey said. “We are working hard to engage residents who have still not been vaccinated.”
Both mass vaccination clinics in Boston—the Hynes Convention Center in the Back Bay and the Reggie Lewis Center—opened for walk-in vaccinations on Monday.
Janey also announced that services will be expanded at City Hall, the Boston Public Library, and the Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) beginning in June.
“Starting June 7, Boston City Hall will be open to the public by appointment four days a week, and residents will be able to book appointments online Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays,” she said. For more information about which services will be available in person and to book an appointment, visit boston.gov.
Also in June, the Boston Public Library will “reopen for limited in-person services. All of our library locations will prioritize services that help residents with economic and educational recovery along with summer programs for kids and adults,” Janey said.
Additionally, BCYF locations will “align with the Phase Four, Step One of the Massachusetts reopening plan. This move will provide safe and accessible space for young residents and increase children’s programming,” such as game nights, arts and crafts activities, and fitness classes.
She also said that the city is looking at “accelerating Bostons reopening timeline in light of the improving public health metric metrics across all of Boston’s communities,” but no announcement has been made yet regarding details of what that might look like.
She continued, “to make a full and equitable recovery from the pandemic, we must continue to do what works in the City of Boston,” such as mask wearing, keeping distant from others, hand washing, and getting vaccinated.
“Working together,” Janey said, “we can ensure Boston’s reopening is a safe one.”