Boston Police Received 1,400 Party Complaints Since Sept. 1

BOSTON — With Mayor Marty Walsh vowing to crackdown on house parties as Boston's coronavirus numbers rise, Boston police have received almost 1,400 calls for party complaints since Sept. 1.

Boston police told the Boston Globe there 993 calls about parties in the city in September, which marked a substantial increase from the 600 complaints they received in the same month in 2019. So far in October, the department has received 404 party complaints.

During a Thursday news conference, Walsh said Boston authorities are considering issuing fines for parties and closing parks to put a stop to unsafe gatherings.

Walsh said those fines would potentially go to not just tenants, but also landlords. Landlords, he said "have to take responsibility for their tenants."

Details on how steep those fines would be and how they would be levied have yet to be announced.

Walsh's vow to crackdown on parties comes as the city grapples with higher rates of positive coronavirus tests, For the week ending Oct. 10, Boston's positive test rate was 4,4 percent, up from 4.1 percent the previous week.

The city is deemed as a "red community," the designation given to cities and towns with the highest risks of coronavirus spread. Communities with that designation average more than eight new daily cases per 100,000 residents. Boston is well above that with 11.1 daily cases per 100,000 residents.

With the risings numbers, Boston school officials has also decided to delay the return of in-person learning for most students until at least Oct. 29.

This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch